gravitational field
Sign in to savedirection and intensity of gravity in every point of space
AI overview
A gravitational field describes how strong gravity is and in which direction it pulls at every location in space around a massive object like Earth or the Sun. Understanding gravitational fields matters because it helps us predict how objects will move and fall, which is essential for everything from engineering buildings to launching spacecraft.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
Representation of the gravitational field of Earth and Moon combined (not to scale). Vector field (blue) and its associated scalar potential field (red). Point P between earth and moon is the point of equilibrium.
In physics, a gravitational field or gravitational acceleration field is a vector field used to explain the influences that a body extends into the space around itself. A gravitational field is used to explain gravitational phenomena, such as the gravitational force field exerted on another massive body. It has dimension of acceleration (L/T) and it is measured in units of newtons per kilogram (N/kg) or, equivalently, in meters per second squared (m/s).