In this article we are going to discuss acceleration due to gravity. to study the acceleration due to gravity we must know the concept of free fall and law of gravity.

acceleration-due-to-gravity

In this universe every object attracts every other object with the force along a line joining them. 

When you throw a ball upwards it falls back to the earth this is because the gravitational force exerted by the Earth on the ball and it is called free fall.

When an object falls towards the earth its speed of falling increases by every second and every second the object covers a greater displacement.

Here, the velocity of the object increases and we know that when velocity of an object increases or decreases there must be acceleration. So, we can say that the object attracts towards the earth.


Acceleration Due to Gravity Definition

The uniform acceleration produced on the freely falling body due to the gravitational force is called acceleration due to gravity.

Acceleration due to gravity is denoted by 'g'. whenever you see 'g' in physics you have to consider it as acceleration due to gravity and it has a standard value defined as 9.80665 m/s2.

Whenever the object falls in downward direction or it goes in upward direction in both the cases the change in velocity is downward hence, the direction of the acceleration due to gravity should always be in downward direction.

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Acceleration Due to Gravity Unit

The SI unit of acceleration due to gravity is metre per second squared (m/s2).

Acceleration due to gravity.               m/s2

Acceleration due to gravity is a vector because it has both the direction and magnitude.


Acceleration Due to Gravity Formula

Standard value of acceleration due to gravity is defined as 9.8 metre per second squared which is constant on the surface of Earth.

The formula of acceleration due to gravity close to the surface of earth can be written as,

g = GM / R2

Where,
  • g is acceleration due to gravity
  • G
  • M
  • R

Acceleration of gravity depends on the four parameters and those are shape of the earth, height, depth and rotation of the earth. One of them discussed above.

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