Do we have our own gravity?

Moment of Um

American Public Media

Kids & Family, Education For Kids

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2025

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You might have heard of gravity as the force that keeps us firmly on the ground and not floating off the planet. Big things (like planets, moons, and stars) have gravity that pulls other objects toward them. But what about smaller things? Like… us? Do we have our own gravity?

If there’s a question pulling at you like a powerful force, we can help with that! Submit your Moment of Um question at BrainsOn.org/contact and we’ll find the answer.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the brains behind brains on.
0:03.0	This is the moment of um.
0:19.8	Welcome to your moment of um from APM Studios. I'm Manico Wilhelm. Look around you right now.
0:28.9	Everything you see is being held down by the force of gravity. Wait, unless you're listening to this in space, which I would love if you were listening in
0:38.3	space, and there's still gravity in space.
0:40.7	There's just not as much of it.
0:42.4	So stuff might be floating around if you do happen to be listening in space.
0:45.9	But I think you're probably not listening in space, which means Earth's gravity has a pretty
0:50.8	firm grip on you.
0:52.4	And this idea about gravity is what prompted today's question.
0:55.9	Hi, my name is Alex from San Antonio, Texas.
0:59.4	My question is, do we have our own gravity?
1:03.1	Like how the Earth pulls stuff toward it?
1:05.5	That's an awesome question, and the answer is yes.
1:09.3	Everything with stuff in it has gravity, which I think is amazing.
1:16.7	Hi, I'm Cindya, and I build telescopes that try to study the beginning of the universe.
1:23.6	Gravity brings things together, and it pulls things together across the entire universe.
1:29.3	Everything with stuff has gravity.
1:32.3	So you sitting next to your friend, there is a small amount of gravity that pulls you closer together.
1:38.3	Even the smallest bits of grass has gravity.
1:41.3	The only reason that we usually can't tell that we have gravity is because the strength
1:47.6	of how strongly something pulls due to gravity is based on how far stuff away is and then how big it is.
	...

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