About gravity my biggest question

Question

I have a big question. According to Newton's law of Gravitation, every single atom attracts every other atom in the universe. The scientists have hypothesised a partical, gluon, to be responsible for the gravity. So if one atom pulls every other atom, which requires energy, of course, so then how does an atom have so much energy to pull so many atoms. Energy can nor be created nor be destroyed so how can it get so much energy? Even if we consider only the atoms of the earth and humans pulling each other at such short distance, one atom has a heck amount of energy! Can someone explain this? And if the atoms use gluon as a way to transfer gravity, doesn't this means that the atoms have unlimited amount of gluon!

Answer 1

Hi Aryan! Let me start by answering the first part of your question. The Earth creates a gravitational field around itself due to its own mass. The gravitational potential energy of the atoms in this field is given by

U = -GMm/R . Now it is true that each atom attracts every other atom, however since the mass of each atom is so infinitesimally small (10^-27kg), the gravitational force between these two atoms is extremely small and consequently so is the gravitational potential energy between them. Gluons are the carriers of strong nuclear forces and they are responsible for binding together neutrons and protons inside a nucleus. They are not responsible for transferring gravitational forces. Gravitons are the theoretical particles responsible for transfer of gravity.

Hope that answers your question!

Answer 2

Expanding upon the prior answer, instead of gluons, you likely meant "gravitons" the quantum unit of gravity. Yet, gravity is so so small an effect at the atomic level it is ignored except in some very special cases. It is of more utility to consider the Force between masses, any mass (and if you want, yes, the mass of an atom of your choice) but let's say something of 1 kilogram, m1, and any other mass, m2, anywhere in the universe is: F = G*m1*m2/d^2 where G is the gravitational constant and d is the distance between the centers of those masses. This is basic Newtonian physics and works for the world we live in and rocket science, which you seen in your engineering - physics courses. But wait there is more: Einstein's general relativity expands on that and concludes in a nutshell, gravity isn't really a force but a bending of space and that gravity waves, not gravitons, can be measured - and they have been. And like special relativity for velocities some notable fraction of speed of light, general relativity reduces down to Newtonian physics at our world level.

Hope this helps. For further information I suggest taking a course in general relativity at your favorite university!