Aero-Terms!

Aero-Terms are designed to be a daily reminder of the terms, names, acronyms and explanations of the unique language that populates the aviation world. Aerospace, sport aviation, fixed wing, helo, you name it... it's all fair game.

Aero-Terms should serve as a quick but intriguing reminder of the terms you may use every day, or an introduction to an aspects of the Aero-World you may not yet be familiar with. ANN also encourages readers to go beyond the FMI link, and further research any intriguing terms.

Suggestions for future Aero-Terms are ALWAYS welcome, as are additions or discussion of the explanations given for each Aero-Term.

Gravitation

The mutual attraction of all masses in the universe. Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation holds that every two bodies attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. This relation is given by the formula at right, where F is the force of attraction between the two objects, given G the Universal Constant of Gravitation, masses m1 and m2, and d distance. Also stated as Fg = GMm/r2 where Fg is the force of gravitational attraction, M the larger of the two masses, m the smaller mass, and r the radius of separation of the centers of the masses.

FMI: www.nasa.gov