A Short Post About Gravity

[ Just some thoughts that came to my mind while watching the lectures on General Relativity. Comments are welcome. Please do point out if there's any mistake. Either in language or in science.]

Gravity, is a very good source of inspiration for one to look up to. One of the fundamental forces of this universe, gravity is by far the weakest. It is no match for its counterparts like the EM force, and it doesn't manifest itself so easily[Footnote 1]. But this weak force turns out to be the hero of the universe. Though weak, gravity shapes and controls our worlds. Gravity gives birth to the stars, binds together galaxies, shapes the planets, control their motions and even our lives. Its inspiring, seeing it to emerge as the biggest player. A fairytale story if you like, from weakest to strongest. Gravity may be weak alone, but it grows with mass. It keeps on adding, never letting anything go. Gravity does not give up. Its range extends to infinity, unlike nuclear forces. Gravity knows only to grow. While EM forces come in two flavours, gravity comes in just one. It does not cancel out itself. So everything that it takes in, only increases its strength.

While rise is one lesson, fall is another. Gravity, if let loose, goes mad. It gives birth to a star, but also destroys it. When it becomes too much for itself, gravity leaves nothing. Not even space and time. It rips apart the very thing that it created and fed on, resulting in a black hole.

So, it is a good story I think. Seeing nature operate. A weak force gaining strength, slowly but surely, creating things and destroying them. And it doesn't require a prince or a demon to teach us some nice things as well.


PS : The title is a reference to Krzysztof Kieślowski's films(Decalogue #5 and #6). Pinnacle of cinema.

[1] By which I mean that the effects are not visible unless the scale is large. For example, it is easy to deflect an iron ball with a magnet, but doing same with gravity would require quite a big mass