Acceleration due to

gravity
acceleration on an object caused by
gravity

The acceleration which is gained by an

object because of gravitational force is
called its acceleration due to gravity. Its SI
unit is m/s2. Acceleration due to gravity is
a vector, which means it has both a
magnitude and a direction. The
acceleration due to gravity at the surface
of Earth is represented by the letter g. It
has a standard value defined as
9.80665 m/s2 (32.1740 ft/s2).[1] However,
the actual acceleration of a body in free
fall varies with location.

Why heavier objects do not

fall faster than lighter objects
Isaac Newton worked out that resultant
force equals mass times acceleration, or
in symbols, . This can be re-

arranged to give . The bigger the

mass of the falling object, the greater the

force of gravitational attraction pulling it
towards Earth. In the equation above, this
is . However, the amount of times the
force gets bigger or smaller is equal to the
number of times the mass gets bigger or
smaller, having the ratio remain constant.

In every situation, the cancels down to

the uniform acceleration of around

9.8 m/s2. This means that, regardless of
their mass, all freely falling objects
accelerate at the same rate.

Consider the following examples:

Surface acceleration
Depending on the location, an object at the
surface of Earth falls with an acceleration
between 9.76 and 9.83 m/s2 (32.0 and
32.3 ft/s2).[2]

Earth is not exactly spherical.[3] It is similar

to a "squashed" sphere, with the radius at
the equator slightly larger than the radius
at the poles. This has the effect of slightly
increasing gravitational acceleration at the
poles (since we are close to the centre of
Earth and the gravitational force depends
on distance) and slightly decreasing it at
the equator.[4] Also, because of centripetal
acceleration, the acceleration due to
gravity is slightly less at the equator than
at the poles.[3] Changes in the density of
rock under the ground or the presence of
mountains nearby can affect gravitational
acceleration slightly.[5]

Altitude

Change in gravitational acceleration with the height of

an object

The acceleration of an object changes

with altitude. The change in gravitational
acceleration with distance from the centre
of Earth follows an inverse-square law.[6]
This means that gravitational acceleration
is inversely proportional to the square of
the distance from the centre of Earth. As
the distance is doubled, the gravitational
acceleration decreases by a factor of 4. As
the distance is tripled, the gravitational
acceleration decreases by a factor of 9,
and so on.[6]
At the surface of the Earth, the
acceleration due to gravity is roughly
9.8 m/s2 (32 ft/s2). The average distance
to the centre of the Earth is 6,371 km
(3,959 mi).

Using the constant , we can work out

gravitational acceleration at a certain
altitude.
Example: Find the acceleration due to
gravity 1,000 km (620 mi) above Earth's
surface.

∴ Distance from centre of Earth is

7,371 km (4,580 mi).

∴ Acceleration due to gravity 1,000 km

(620 mi) above Earth's surface is 7.3 m/s2
(24 ft/s2).

Gravitational acceleration at the Kármán

line, the boundary between Earth's
atmosphere and outer space which lies at
an altitude of 100 km (62 mi), is only about
3% lower than at sea level.

References
1. "standard acceleration of gravity" .
NIST. Retrieved 2014-11-06.
2. Hirt, Christian; Claessens, Sten; Fecher,
Thomas; Kuhn, Michael; Pail, Roland;
Rexer, Moritz (28 August 2013). "New
ultrahigh-resolution picture of Earth’s
gravity field". Geophysical Research
Letters (American Geophysical Union)
40 (16): 4279–4283.
doi:10.1002/grl.50838 .
 3. Aron, Jacob (2013-08-21). "Gravity
map reveals Earth's extremes" . New
Scientist. Retrieved 2013-12-31.
4. http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/questi
on.php?number=310
5. http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/questi
on.php?number=465
6. "The Value of g" . The Physics
Classroom. Retrieved 2013-11-27.

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