gravitational mass

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gravitational mass

An astronaut floats inside a spacecraft, demonstrating the concept of gravitational mass.

Definition

Noun: - (Physics) The mass of a body as measured by its gravitational attraction for other bodies: This is a measure of an object's mass derived from the strength of the gravitational force it exerts on other objects or that other objects exert on it. It is one of the two concepts of mass in physics, the other being inertial mass.

Usage
  • Gravitational mass is a fundamental property in Newton's law of universal gravitation and Einstein's theory of general relativity.
  • It is used to calculate gravitational forces and interactions between objects.
  • The equivalence principle states that gravitational mass is equivalent to inertial mass.
Examples
  • Noun:
    • The experiment aimed to test the equivalence of inertial and gravitational mass.
    • A planet's gravitational mass determines the orbital period of its moons.
    • Scientists measured the object's gravitational mass by observing its pull on a nearby test mass.
Advanced Usage
  • "Active gravitational mass": The mass that is the source of a gravitational field.
    • The active gravitational mass of the Sun governs the motion of the planets.
  • "Passive gravitational mass": The mass that responds to a gravitational field created by other bodies.
    • The passive gravitational mass of an object determines the force it feels in a gravitational field.
Variants and Related Words
  • Mass (n): The quantity of matter in a body.
  • Inertial mass (n): The mass of a body as measured by its resistance to acceleration.
  • Gravitational field (n): A region of space where a mass experiences a force due to gravity.
  • Gravitational force (n): The attractive force between objects with mass.
Synonyms
  • Gravitational charge (a conceptual synonym in some theoretical contexts, emphasizing its role in gravity analogous to electric charge in electromagnetism).
Related Concepts (Not Phrasal Verbs or Idioms)
  • Equivalence principle: The principle that gravitational mass and inertial mass are identical.
  • Newton's law of universal gravitation: The law stating that every point mass attracts every other point mass by a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
gravitational mass

An astronaut floats inside a spacecraft, demonstrating the concept of gravitational mass.

Noun
  1. (physics) the mass of a body as measured by its gravitational attraction for other bodies