Why doesnt the earth crash into the sun?

Question

My teacher wants to know. Something with gravity I think.

Answer 1

The speed of our orbit offsets the pull of gravity.  We are also in a tug-o-war between the Sun and the other outer planets.

Answer 2

Gravity is an attractive force between any two objects. If the Earth were perfectly still, it would eventually be pulled into the Sun.

However, the Earth is speeding through space in an orbit around the Sun. There are two ways you can think of an orbit:

1- The simplest way is to imagine that the Earth is constantly falling towards the Sun. But, because of the Earth's speed, it constantly misses.

2- The second way is in terms of force balance. The Sun's gravity is pulling the Earth towards it, and this is balanced by the centrifugal force that results from the Earth's motion around the sun.

You can experience centrifugal force if you get in a car and drive in small circles; the centrifugal force will be pulling you away from the center of the circle. The faster you drive the stronger the centrifugal force.

In Earth's case, the speed is just right so that gravity is perfectly balance by centrifugal force and (hopefully) the Earth will never fall into the Sun.

Answer 3

actually, gravity makes the 2 objects attract each other, but the spinning around produces a force (called centrifugal force) that counterbalances the gravitational pull.