Which statement describes the sign of gravitational force?
Gravitational force is negative because it is attractive.
Gravitational force is negative because it is repulsive.
Gravitational force is positive because it is attractive.
Gravitational force is positive because it is repulsive.
A) Gravitational force is negative because it is attractive.
Well, gravity can't make up its mind whether it wants to be positive or negative. It just goes both ways! Gravitational force is actually always attractive, meaning it pulls objects towards each other. So the correct statement is: "Gravitational force is positive because it is attractive." Gravity just can't resist bringing things together!
The correct statement is: Gravitational force is negative because it is attractive.
The correct statement is: Gravitational force is negative because it is attractive.
To understand why this is the case, we need to look at the nature of gravitational force. Gravitational force is the force of attraction that exists between any two objects with mass. According to Newton's law of universal gravitation, this force is directly proportional to the masses of the objects and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers.
When two objects have mass, they exert a gravitational force on each other. In the case of gravitational force, like charges (masses) attract each other, and unlike charges (masses) repel each other. Therefore, gravitational force is always attractive in nature.
Now, let's talk about the sign of the gravitational force. The sign convention of gravitational force is based on the direction of the force. In most cases, the direction of the gravitational force is considered to be towards the center of the object. Since force is a vector quantity, it has both magnitude (size) and direction. In this convention, the direction of the force is what determines the sign.
So, when two objects with mass interact, they experience an attractive gravitational force towards each other. Since force is defined as a vector pointing from the source (object exerting the force) to the target (object experiencing the force), the vector is taken as negative because it is directed towards the source of the force. Hence, the correct statement is that gravitational force is negative because it is attractive.