How does distance affect the strength of the force of gravity?

Hello!

The properties of the gravity force were discovered by Isaac Newton and can be described by Newton's law of universal gravitation.

Suppose there are two bodies with the masses `m` and `M` and the distance `R` between them (the distance is supposed to be much greater than the sizes of the bodies). Then the gravity force acts on each body in the direction of another body, and the magnitude of this force is:

`G*(m*M)/(R^2),`

where `G` is the universal gravitational constant.

So, for the fixed masses the gravitational force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. For example, if the distance becomes twice as big, the force becomes four times weaker. Conversely, if the distance becomes twice as small, the force becomes four times stronger.

Despite such a dependence on distance, the gravity force plays a more important role between stars and planets than between atoms and elementary particles.