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Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation
The Moon’s gravity is weaker than Earth’s because gravity depends on two factors: mass and distance. The Moon has only 1.23% of Earth’s mass (7.35 × 10²² kg vs Earth’s 5.97 × 10²⁴ kg) and about 27% of Earth’s radius. Using Newton’s formula F = G(m₁m₂/r²), where G is the gravitational constant, we find the Moon’s surface gravity is approximately 1.625 m/s² compared to Earth’s 9.807 m/s² – that’s about 16.5% of Earth’s gravity.
