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Welcome to our Physics lesson on Gravity, Centre of Gravity and Gravitation, this is the first lesson of our suite of physics lessons covering the topic of Newton's Law of Gravitation, you can find links to the other lessons within this tutorial and access additional physics learning resources below this lesson.
As explained in tutorial "Types of Forces I. Gravitational Force and Weight", gravity is the attracting effect all objects possess, regardless their structure. Gravity produced by an object extends in all directions. The space around an object in which the gravity is observed is known as "gravitational field" and the force produced by this field is known as "gravitational force".
There is another related concept, which is often confused with gravity. It is known as gravitation and represents a movement, or a tendency to move, towards a centre of gravity, as in the falling of bodies to the earth.
Obviously, the concept of gravitation is related to that of centre of gravity (mass) we discussed in the tutorial "Centre of Mass and Types of Equilibrium". We explained it is a special point inside an object in which most properties of the object are concentrated.
In a few words, gravitation is the tendency to move towards the centre of gravity of an object due to the attracting effect of gravity produced by it. This means gravity is the cause, gravitation the effect, centre of gravity the target point, gravitational force the tool used to realize the objective and gravitational field the medium of event's occurrence.
You have reached the end of Physics lesson 8.1.1 Gravity, Centre of Gravity and Gravitation. There are 5 lessons in this physics tutorial covering Newton's Law of Gravitation, you can access all the lessons from this tutorial below.
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