The two main factors that affect gravity's influence are:
-
Mass: The gravitational force between two objects is directly proportional to the product of their masses. Larger masses exert stronger gravitational pulls. For example, the Earth, having a massive size, exerts a strong gravitational force compared to smaller objects.
-
Distance: The gravitational force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the centers of the two objects. This means that as the distance between two objects increases, the gravitational force between them decreases significantly. The formula that describes this relationship is described by Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation:
\[ F = G \frac{m_1 m_2}{r^2} \]
where \( F \) is the gravitational force, \( G \) is the gravitational constant, \( m_1 \) and \( m_2 \) are the masses of the two objects, and \( r \) is the distance between their centers.