alleryStart learning →Who first measured the gravitational constant G experimentally, and when?
AHenry Cavendish, in 1798
BIsaac Newton, in 1687
CJohannes Kepler, in 1609
DAlbert Einstein, in 1915
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: A. Henry Cavendish, in 1798
1. Newton published the law of gravitation more than a century before G was measured.
2. It was Henry Cavendish who first accurately measured G, in 1798, using a torsion balance.
3. His result differed from the modern value by less than 1 percent, remarkable for the era.
_Source: OpenStax Physics (CC BY 4.0), Ch 7 "Newton's Law of Gravitation", section 7.2 Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation and Einstein's Theory of General Relativity_
Keep practising Newton's Law of Gravitation
Browse all Newton's Law of Gravitation questions for NCEA Level 3, or explore more Physics topics.
Related questions
Earth's closest approach to the sun is 1.47 x 10^8 km, and its farthest distance is 1.52 xA moon's orbital focal point sits 50,000 km from the center of its elliptical orbit, and tEarth orbits the sun at 1.496 x 10^8 km, taking one year. Neptune orbits at 4.490 x 10^9 kMercury orbits the sun with a period of 88.0 days at an average radius of 5.791 x 10^10 m.Using G = 6.673 x 10^-11 N.m^2/kg^2, what is the gravitational force between two 60.0 kg pEarth's radius is 6.37 x 10^6 m, and g at its surface is about 9.8 m/s^2. Using G = 6.673 Why does the moon not trace a perfectly smooth circle around the sun?Before Kepler, Copernicus, and Galileo, the Ptolemaic model placed which body at the cente