Do you believe in gravity?

*This text was written by a TecMundo columnist; finally learn more.

The title question can be understood in two ways: Science, especially in Physics, which explains that gravity is the acceleration of things falling toward the center of the Earth, or if you believe that gravity is actually something inherent in nature itself. Two things are different and not private, meaning you can believe in one, not the other, believe both, or neither.

However, regardless of your belief, if you drop your mobile phone, computer or tablet you are reading this article on, the device will most likely fall to the ground. There may be a reason why this happens, and it has been explained in a few different ways.

For example, philosophers in ancient times believed that all bodies were made up of variations of the four elements: Water, Fire, Earth, and Air. Thus, a heavy object falls to the ground and is drawn to the ground, as it has more soil in its composition, etc.

The example of a falling object explained from the four elements is illustrative because no one, or just a few, understand it as “real”, at least at the moment. However, when it was proposed, many people believed that this is how nature works.

Therefore, it is important to understand that there is a difference between what most people believe to be true and what actually exists in nature. physical quantities such as Gravityfor example, things that we humans create to explain the events happening around us. And it’s not just because we use these descriptions that nature really behaves like that.

From this we can deduce another question: Is there any way of knowing what is truly true in nature? And if we’re just talking about Science, the answer would be a simple “no”. To understand why, we can take the principle used by the philosopher Karl Popper, who thought that for a proposition to be accepted scientifically it had to be “true”, that is, to be proven false.

It is not an absolute truth to claim that there is such an acceleration, called gravity, where objects fall towards the center of the Earth. It is entirely possible to imagine a hypothetical situation where no object is falling with the same acceleration. On the other hand, if a person claims to love football, such a claim has no scientific basis because it is purely subjective and cannot be proven false.

Thus, we understand that scientific facts, even seemingly obvious ones like gravity, are temporary, and there is little point in being “sure” about something that can be proven wrong or calling it “true”. It’s completely understandable that this lack of certainty can be troubling to many people. However, this discomfort can be seen precisely as a motivation to further develop our knowledge of nature as a whole.

Finally, we can realize that we don’t need to believe in gravity to try to answer the first question. Rather, Science needs us to doubt any claim to encourage the search for even better explanations for why things happen. So, as we become more familiar with the nature of science, we find relief from the discomfort this lack of precision brings us.

Rodolfo Lima Barros Souzaphysics professor and columnist TecMundo. He holds a Master’s degree in Physics and Science and Mathematics Teaching from Unicamp in Public Perception of Science. It is featured on social networks as @rodolfo.sou.