What is gravitation? (a) Objects attract each other (b) what goes up must come down (c) both (a) and (b) (d) None of the options is correct.
1 Answer
Answer a is probably the best answer, none are perfect.
Explanation:
About a:
Well, objects do attract each other. That is more a result of gravitation than defining what it is. But that is a picky argument. I think for the purposes of this question, I would say true for a. To make this choice perfectly true, I would say "The reason that objects attract each other."
About b:
What goes up must come down works most of the time. But the space probes Pioneer 10 and Voyager 1 have left the solar system, so they are not going to come back down.
The statement "What goes up must come down" suggests that gravity only act in the downward direction. Gravity is a factor in more than up and down. Bodies at the same height have horizontal attraction to each other that can be detected with delicate instruments. Reference:
https://www.decodedscience.org/the-cavendish-experiment-to-measure-the-gravitational-constant-g/22608/2
So again, are these arguments about answer b too picky, or does the exception disprove the rule?
I think a is a more correct answer than b. But neither seem perfect to me. Depending on how detail oriented your class is, your best answer could be a, c, or d.
I hope this helps,
Steve
