Read It! Read about gravity and why things fall. When finished, touch =CONTINUE=>.

Why do things fall?
Have you ever thought about that? Things fall because of gravity. Gravity is a force that pulls everything to the earth. We can’t see gravity. But it is at work all of the time. It pulls everything to the ground.

Gravity affects everything on Earth that has matter. Anything that takes up space is matter. Every object has a center of gravity. We call that a balancing point. This is what we call the center of an object's mass. Different things have different balancing points.

How can gravity help people?
All objects on Earth have a size, shape, and weight otherwise known as its mass. The object’s weight is created by the gravitational pull of the Earth. For example, you step on a scale to see how much your body weighs. You are really calculating how much gravity is pulling down on your body. How interesting! EVERYTHING on Earth is under the same amount of gravitational pull!

Would your mass and weight be the same on the moon?
The moon is smaller than the Earth. Therefore, the gravitational pull on the moon is less than the gravitational pull on the Earth. So, the moon’s force of gravity is only 1/6 of Earth’s force of gravity. Thus, if you weighed 100 pounds on Earth you would only weigh 16.6 pounds on the moon! The lower force of gravity will cause objects to fall at a slower rate too. The moon has a lower gravitational pull or force. So an astronaut will fall at a slower rate than a person falling on the Earth. (Remember: Lower gravity gets slower speeds. Higher gravity gets faster speeds.)

Does mass change?
It does not matter if you are on the Earth, the moon, or just chilling in space; your mass does not change. But your weight does change. It depends on the gravity force. You would weigh less on the moon than on Earth, and just floating in space, you would weigh almost nothing at all!

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