Question

Gravitational force can be repulsive.
A) True
B) False

Answer 1

We know that the gravitational force is defined as the force with which the Earth pulls the object present on the surface towards itself. In simple words, we can define the force to be the one that one Earth exerts on oneself. When we are at rest or we are nearer to the surface of the Earth, the gravitational force is similar to the weight of the object.

Complete answer:
We know that the gravitational force is defined as the multiplication of the gravitational constant along with the masses of the objects and then divided by the square of the distance between the objects.
From the definition of the gravitational force, we can write the expression as:
$\mathrm{F}=\dfrac{\mathrm{GM}_{1} \mathrm{M}_{2}}{\mathrm{R}^{2}}$
In the above expression, we can say that F defines the gravitational force, G is the value of the gravitational constant and the masses of the two objects taken into consideration are expressed in ${{M}_{1}},{{M}_{2}}$. And R is defined as the distance that is present between the two objects.
Now, we know that the mass of the objects that is taken into consideration cannot be negative in nature. Hence, the nature of the gravitational force will always be attractive and not repulsive.
Thus, we can conclude that gravitational force cannot be repulsive.

Hence, the correct answer is Option B.

Note: We should know that the Universal Law of Gravitation states that at every point on the surface of Earth, each object having mass will be attracted by every other point mass that is existing. The force that will exist will be pointing along a line that will exist between the centre of masses of the two objects taken in consideration. The gravitational force is directly proportional to the masses of the objects but will be inversely proportional to the distance of separation between the objects.