Mission CG7 Gravitational Field Strength
Hold down the T key for 3 seconds to activate the audio accessibility mode, at which point you can click the K key to pause and resume audio. Useful for the Check Your Understanding and See Answers.
The acceleration of gravity is the acceleration value experienced by an object upon which the only force is gravity. It is the acceleration caused by gravity alone.
It is not uncommon for students to become terribly confused about the meaning of the symbol g. The symbol g stands for the acceleration of gravity - a quantity whose value on Earth's surface is 9.8 m/s/s. Students often shorten the phrase acceleration of gravity to simply gravity and then think that g stands for gravity. But don't be fooled! The symbol g represents the acceleration of gravity and should never be confused with another quantity known as the force of gravity. The force of gravity is just that - a force. It is not an acceleration and its value could never be 9.8 m/s/s since the unit m/s/s is not a unit of force.
