How is it theoretically possible for gravity to have infinite range throughout the universe?
In: Physics
It can be a bit counter-intuitive at first, given how most interactions in everyday life need some direct interaction between objects, but gravity exists between any 2 objects that have mass, even if they aren’t in any sort of direct contact otherwise.
The force of gravity between objects decreases at an inverse square of the distance between them(meaning, we divide by an ever larger number), but never by a flat amount, so it simply never reaches 0.
How it’s *theoretically* possible for such a thing to even exist? That’s maybe more of a philosophical question, we observed it to be this way consistently, and doesn’t contradict anything we’ve seen, so we kind of just have to assume that it’s possible.
In *practice* however, because the force becomes really really weak really fast with distance, you get interactions where the force of gravity is effectively meaningless in extreme distances. In theory, a huge star really far away exerts gravity on you just the same way as Earth does under you, but if due to the distance between you and that star the force is the same size as between you and a piece of sand next to you, then it doesn’t influence much.
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