Eli5: Why does gravity work? Like I get what it is but why does gravity exists?
In: Physics
Ignore the other commenters that say “there is no why.” .
In the standard model of physics there are a bunch of parts that are mathematically dependent on each other. What this means is if one number was even slightly different, the whole system could not work (ELI5). So gravity exists as one of several factors necessary for a balanced system. It would be similar to a nuclear decay where a neutron turns into an electron and a proton and asking “why is there an electron?” [ELI5] Or if you took apart a BLT and asked “why are there tomatoes?” It’s a necessary part to complete the set.
Now we can imagine some other arbitrary system of numbers that also happens to balance out, but gravity and the other mathematical constants like magnetism and the strong nuclear force already exist as a balanced set in the world we live in. The “big bang” is some kind of [preceding event where these forces were merged together and broke apart](https://openstax.org/resources/96e3d538be70bcf75a7c459302ab50e08e4294a5); so in this case the big bang is the BLT and gravity is tomatoes.
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