# Is Gravity on a bell curve? [closed]

Is there a point where gravity decreases the farther away from an object that is not related to distance?

• Could you perhaps rephrase the question? It is difficult to understand precisely what you are asking. Aug 26, 2016 at 6:03
• Hi Jen. Can you clarify what you are asking? It has been suggested that at very large distances the gravitational force might depart from the Newtonian law - MOND is an example of this. However the departure from Newtonian behaviour is small. Aug 26, 2016 at 6:07
• I was actually looking for exactly what you asked about, don't know why this was closed. Sep 6, 2019 at 12:40

Variables "on a bell curve", if I am interpreting you correctly, are random variables with probability distributions, that is, they are non-deterministic. Repeated measurements (or experiments) of random variables yield distinct results, with probability obeying a certain cumulative distribution function (CDF). One such distribution is the famous bell curve (shown are the chances of falling in certain intervals).

I guess your question can be rephrased as "Is Gravity non-deterministic?" -- that is, would we expect different results from repeated measurements of Gravity at the same distance from an attractive object?

The answer would be no, because the force of gravity is theoretically consistent across measurements. In contrast, Quantum Mechanics ellucidates phenomena at very small scales that indeed effectively do not yield the same results for repeated measurements.

Keep in mind that gravity measurement instruments, however, do measure "on a bell curve", because of error. The source of error is usually noise: a plethora a small interference effects (ranging from radio waves, vibrations, to thermal fluctuation of electronics).

If you get a chronometer and measure the height $h$ a ball released at time $t=0$ has fallen at time $t=1s$, you might expect from the effects of gravity alone the ball has fallen $g/2$ meters, giving a measurement of your local gravity $g$. However, in practice you won't obtain consistent results (that's an easy experiment to try yourself! you can do it by using smartphone video recoding and dropping objects against a measurement tape; you should get $g/2 \approx 4.9$).

• Please don't answer unclear questions with wild guesses as to what they might mean. Aug 26, 2016 at 10:07
• @ACuriousMind he nailed it.
– Muze
Sep 12, 2016 at 0:06