Have you ever questioned why you would return to the ground when you jump? Or the moment when you would drop something, believing that it might float, but it would simply touch the ground? What is that ‘something’ that always brings us towards the earth’s surface?

Well, we all know that ‘something’ is gravity. Gravity will always be there. It will never change, nor would it forget us and go on vacation. First, let us get to know about gravity. It is an invisible force of attraction between atoms. For those who did not yet understand, here is an example.

Go ahead and launch a ball into the air. Did it come back to the ground or did it fade into space? Clearly, it came down. That is because of the pull of the gravity of earth. This is the reason why humans never float, unless in space.

Now for the exciting part, just imagine, if earth loses it gravitational force or pull, what will happen? Your guess is just like mine, everything would just start floating. Yes! But can you imagine your breakfast, your chair, the glass of orange juice, and you, yourself, would be flying in the air?

It might sound fun to many of you at first, but you have no idea of the gravity of the situation! Yes, losing gravity means losing everything.

This must be a very dangerous situation to imagine. At first, people who are inside their houses would be safe. Although, people outside their houses, in the park, or children strolling in school, would just fly off into space. The people inside their houses won’t be safe for long, since some houses would start floating away as well.

This will soon get out of hand. All objects and living things will soon vanish into space, even the massive and firm trees. Planes and aircraft, offices and schools, skyscrapers and buildings will all lose weight.

An advantage of having no gravity would be that we would be able to carry the heaviest things on earth, just because everything will lose weight.

Did you know that water also stays in the oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, etc., because of gravity? And with the water will rise the marine animals and plants! At first, everything will float and when there will be no air to breath in space, all living things, including humans, will die.

The earth would stop rotating and the moon would also collide with the earth. The earth would likely break into pieces and its little pieces would be floating as well. Such a hopeless situation it will be, which ultimately put an end to everything on our planet.

So everything we have has a reason behind it and what makes life on our beautiful planet Earth worth living is gravity.

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 13th, 2022