Gravitational force is never truly zero. If it has mass, it is pulling at you, though it may be so close to zero that you don’t realize it.

  • mumblerfish@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    10 months ago

    Eh. It’s not really a definite distinction. Even in GR you formulate effective potentials and the gradient on those potentials are still called forces. Then, what is a force on microscopic scale? It is the exchange of force mediators, like photons. If gravitons exists, then there is even a similar framework for defining a force on a microscopic level for electromagnetism as well as gravity. Furthermore, electromagnetism (qed) also has an interpretation as a curvature, as it is a gauge theory, just not a curvature of physical spacetime, and that does not disqualify if from being called a “force”.