-1

Newton's third law states that whenever a force acts on you, you act on it with the same force, just with an opposite direction(except it's stated a little fancier). Now if an apple is falling through the air, it is falling because the gravity is pulling it downwards, what exactly is the reaction that the apple applies to the gravity?

(or even more broad examples like satellites that constantly get pulled downwards by gravity but never land due to centripetal force)

sammy gerbil
  • 27,277
Mohannad El-Nesr
  • 31
  • El - Nesr -<(or even more broad examples like satellites that constantly get pulled downwards by gravity but never land due to centripetal force)>,,, but this force is towards earth so how can you say it does not land due to this force.. – drvrm Jul 25 '18 at 17:45

1 Answers1

1

The earth pulls the apple toward the center of the earth. The apple pulls the earth toward the center of the apple. We just don't notice the effects of the earth being pulled upward, since it is a trillion trillion times more massive than the apple, and undergoes only a trillionth of a trillionth of the acceleration that the apple does.

Nuclear Hoagie
  • 9,363
  • and how does the apple's gravity reach the earth? isn't there a maximum range? if not why isn't everything being pulled together? – Mohannad El-Nesr Jul 25 '18 at 17:16
  • That is no maximum range to gravity, and in fact everything is "being pulled" towards each other. But there's also initial velocities to take into account which means sometimes you get orbits rather than things just smashing into each other. – enumaris Jul 25 '18 at 17:27
  • @Mohannad El-Nesr Why would there be a maximum range? – Daddy Kropotkin Jul 25 '18 at 17:35
  • I mean is the sun, for example, pulling on another star 250 light years away? – Mohannad El-Nesr Jul 25 '18 at 17:56