Why doesn't the suns gravity pull us into it?

Question

Why doesn't the suns gravity pull us into it?

Answer 1

newton's law

action reaction..or however you call that

if a mass of body applies a force on another, that other body applies back a fair amount of force to the former one..

they are pushing and pulling each other at the same time..

Answer 2

It does...just REALLY slowly, hence why we're orbiting around the sun.

Answer 3

Counteracting the pull of the sun is the momentum of the Earth. Tie a weight to a string and swing it around you in a circle (do this outside, just in case of "oopsies"). The pull you feel on the string is centrifugal force. The Earth has the same. If it weren't for the Sun's gravity acting as a counter to that (centripetal force), we would go shooting off into space.

Answer 4

It tries to pull us in, but we, together with our planet, are flying past the sun so fast that we keep missing it every time. Same thing happens to the Moon rotating around us, and to the space Shuttles rotating around the earth.

It's called being in orbit.

Answer 5

The sun is pulling us (the earth) towards it all the time. we don't fall into it because we are also moving side ways.

pick a moment and draw a line from the earth to the sun, we would have fallen in that direction the same distance to reach the sun. but fortunately we have also moved side ways about the same distance. so we are still the same distance away from the sun, albeit in a direction at right angle to the original line we drew.

of course, the same story goes on and on, and we just circle the sun by moving sideways and falling at the same time.

Answer 6

This happens just like how a satelite doesnt fall back to earth. The suns gravity pulls on us and tries to pull us in, while we are trying to fly into space. These forces counteract with each other and both of them fail, which keeps us in orbit. If you need a better description, ask the question again later on.

Answer 7

The earths gravity is more powerful than the suns so they cancel each other out

Answer 8

Gravity is a force. A force is something that makes an object change its velocity. The velocity of an object isn't exactly it's speed, the situation is a little more involved than that. Velocity is a vector, just like force.

Velocity is similar to speed (how fast something is going), but the fact that it is a vector means that it also tells you where something is going.

Walk 20 metres Eastward in a minute and your speed will be 20 metres/minute. It's just a number, so speed isn't a vector.

Your (average) velocity, however, will be 20 metres/minute Eastward. This is a vector, because it gives you the direction.

So a force can change an object's velocity without changing it's speed! It just has to change the direction it is moving in. Orbits aren't like dropping a ball (where the ball starts from rest, speeds up as it falls, and hits the ground), they are set up just right so that this change in velocity keeps the speed the same, but keeps changing the DIRECTION that the earth is moving in. This constantly changing direction bends the earth into a circular orbit.

Answer 9

The sun has a huge mass and therefore a huge gravitational pull, but this is weak as the earth is so far away from the sun. The gravitational pull is also balanced by the fact that the earth orbits the sun creating an outward centripetal force.  Think of it like a ball swinging around on a long string - the string (gravity) keeps it orbiting from flying outwards but the centripetal force pulls it outwards.