If you have 2 iron spheres and a magnet, the lighter sphere will move first to the magnet. But with earths gravity fall tests we know that every object falls with the same speed when dropped no matter theirs weight. What makes it different?
In: Physics
Gravity is best thought of as a distortion in space around an object, rather than some magical tractor beam.
The huge planet on the other side of the cosmos attracts both a speck of dust and a giant galaxy just the same. Because gravity is really just a “hole” that makes everything slope towards it. The classic analogy is a steel ball on a rubber sheet.
Doesn’t matter how big that ball is, the rubber sheet is going to deform and form a slope, and no matter WHAT size the things resting on the sheet are, they will “roll” down that slope towards the hole just the same. A boulder will slide down a hill just the same as an acorn, and they’ll both do it at the same acceleration.
Magnetism doesn’t operate like that. Magnetism is far closer to being a “tractor beam”. The magnet is trying to pull on other objects, so the larger the other objects are, the stronger the magnet needs to be to even affect it.
Gravity is distortion of space-time. I think we have Einstein et al to thank for noticing that.
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