How does the Sun's gravity change with distance?
Stargazing or a space-book question at bedtime: "the Sun holds Earth AND faraway Neptune — so if you flew off into space, where would its pull finally let go of you?" The surprise is that there's no edge at all.
Talk about it
- If you walked twice as far from a campfire, would it feel half as warm, or even less? The Sun's pull fades in a similar steep way — a quarter at double the distance.
- The Sun holds tiny Mercury AND faraway Neptune. So guess: is there a line out in space where its pull suddenly quits?
- What's the difference between something being 'too small to notice' and being 'exactly zero'? Gravity is the first kind, never the second.