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Curated by: Physics Explained (87 videos)
According to Newton’s universal law of gravitation, objects will attract each other with a force that is proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. This relationship doesn’t give us the exact size of the force for a specific pair of masses and separation. To calculate this, we need an exchange rate factor—what physicists call a constant of proportionality. Enter Newton’s gravitational constant, often referred to as "Big G." This constant quantifies the strength of gravity in the universe. It allows us to convert the proportional relationship into an equation we can use. G sets the scale of the gravitational force, determining how strongly masses attract each other. Without G, we’d have no way to quantify how weak or strong the gravitational force is.