Question

which of the following statements about the force of gravity is false? its strength is inversely proportional to the mass: the more mass, the less gravity. its strength decreases as the square of the distance. it is a universal force, which acts everywhere in space. it causes the paths of the planets to be ellipses and not straight lines. the force never becomes zero.

Explanation:

The gravitational force \(F = G\frac{m_1m_2}{r^2}\), where \(G\) is the gravitational - constant, \(m_1\) and \(m_2\) are masses, and \(r\) is the distance between them. The strength of the gravitational force is directly proportional to the product of the masses (\(m_1m_2\)), not inversely proportional to the mass. The other statements are correct: the force decreases as the square of the distance (\(r^2\)), it is a universal force, it causes planetary orbits to be elliptical, and the force never truly reaches zero as long as mass exists in the universe.

Answer:

Its strength is inversely proportional to the mass: the more mass, the less gravity.