Question

What is the difference between gravitation and gravity?

Answer 1

Hint: - We know that gravity and gravitation both are the forces and used while performing the calculations related to gravity and solving problems involving the motion of a body under the influence of external forces. Thus to find the difference between them we will use formulas for gravitation and gravity.
 Formula used: $F = \dfrac{{G{m_1}{m_2}}}{{{r^2}}}$ , $F = mg$

Complete Step-by-step solution:
In the question we have demanded the difference between gravitation and gravity, there is a very small difference between them which we will find by using the definition and formulas which are given as,
Gravitational Force: It is the force acting between two bodies in the universe. It is expressed mathematically as, $F = \dfrac{{G{m_1}{m_2}}}{{{r^2}}}$ .
Gravity force: It is the force applied by the earth on any object present near it. It is expressed precisely as, $F = mg$ .
Now, we will consider the differences such as,
Gravitation is the attractive force existing between any two objects that have mass whereas gravity is the gravitational force that occurs between the earth and other bodies.
Gravitational force is weaker in comparison to the earth’s gravity.
Now, in the expression of gravitation, the value of G is $6.67 \times {10^{ - 11}}N{m^2}/k{g^2}$ which is a universal constant, while the value of g in the expression of gravity is not the same everywhere in the universe and it is taken as $9.81m/{s^2}$ on earth.

Additional Information: The gravitational constant is the proportionality constant used in Newton’s law of Universal Gravitation, and is commonly denoted by $G$. This is different from $g$, which denotes acceleration due to gravity.

Note: Many times a student might get confused between the term’s gravity and gravitation and due to that might consider wrong values of $G$ or $g$ during calculations and due to that the answer will be wrong or practically correct. So, students must learn the basic difference between the terms before using them anywhere in the solutions.