Gravity is a force between any two objects with mass. Why doesn't a person feel a gravitational force between him/herself and another person?

Question

There are so many people we are actually balanced by all the different gravitational forces.
The gravitational forces of people is so small it is overshadowed by that of Earth.
The two gravitational forces cancel each other out.
A person doesn't exert a gravitational force.

Answer 1

The reason a person does not feel a gravitational force between themselves and another person is primarily due to the fact that the gravitational forces exerted by individuals are extremely small compared to the gravitational force exerted by the Earth.

1. Magnitude of Gravitational Force: The gravitational force between two masses is calculated using Newton's law of gravitation, which states that the gravitational force \( F \) is proportional to the product of the masses of the two objects and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them: \[ F = G \frac{m_1 m_2}{r^2} \] Where \( G \) is the gravitational constant, \( m_1 \) and \( m_2 \) are the masses involved, and \( r \) is the distance between their centers. The masses of individual people (e.g., ~70 kg) are very small compared to the mass of the Earth (~5.97 x 10^24 kg). Thus, the gravitational attraction between two people is negligible compared to the gravitational pull from the Earth.

2. Effect of Earth's Gravitational Force: The gravitational force that we feel from Earth is overwhelmingly dominant over the minuscule forces between people. You experience weight and the force of gravity primarily due to the mass of the Earth pulling you toward its center.

3. Cancelling Forces: While gravitational forces do act between individuals, they do not cancel each other out in a meaningful sense. Each person exerts a gravitational force on every other person around them, but these forces are so small relative to Earth's gravity that they are imperceptible.

4. Human Gravitational Force: Although humans do exert gravitational forces on each other, the effect is incredibly minor. In practical terms, we do not notice these forces in everyday interactions because they are trivial compared to other forces at play, such as friction or the electromagnetic forces that govern our interactions.

In conclusion, the primary reason a person doesn't feel a gravitational force from another person is that the gravitational attraction between humans is exceedingly small and overshadowed by the gravitational force of the Earth.