Feb 22, 2011

Acceleration due to gravity

The acceleration produced in a body due to the force of gravity during free fall is known as acceleration due to gravity.It is denoted by g where g=9.8 m/s.
Calculation of acceleration due to gravity:
               According to newton's law of gravitation, the force between two bodies is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of distance between  them.                                
Where G is the gravitational constant with the value
Now consider the earth and the particle going to have a freefall.Let the mass of the earth be M and mass of that particle be m.Let the particle be at the surface of the earth.Then the value of R will be the radius of earth, where earth is taken as a sphere.
                                          According to Newton's third law, Force F=ma.Let a=g.Then substituting it in the equation, we get mg=GMm/R^2 which is simplified to g=GM/R^2
Now we can calculate the value of g with the known values of G,M & R.
                      where M=5.98 *10^24 Kg (mass of the earth)
                                 R=63781*10^2 m (radius of earth)
 then acceleration due to gravity g is
For calculations: Use our Scientific calculator.

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