gravitational field
- noun
- /ˌɡrævɪˈteɪʃənl fiːld/
- Specialized
- Loosely speaking, photons lose energy as they climb out of the Earth's gravitational field.
- a strong gravitational field
- Earth's gravitational field
- an artificial gravitational field
So after all, the gravitational field of the Earth is pretty modest.
- So after all, the gravitational field of the Earth is pretty modest.
- Does antimatter have anything like a gravitational field to send signals?
- So are they in a massive gravitational field?
- Because this part of me is caught in the heavy gravitational field, time for this arm goes slower.
- And of the fields that we know, only two of them stretch over macroscopic distances, electromagnetic fields and gravitational fields.
- These standing waves are quanta of the gravitational field called gravitons.
- What I was able to do was to solve Einstein's gravitational field equations for a ring laser.
- If you fall freely, you eliminate the gravitational field.
- And we rendezvous with it and it's it's got weird things going on, weird gravitational field that shouldn't exist.
- The next step for humanity is to actually learn to control gravitational field, which could, like, free humanity.
Examples
-
Let's consider for a moment the motion of an object dropped in the Earth's gravitational field.
Academic text (1992) -
Earth is simply falling freely in the Sun's gravitational field.
Academic text (1996) -
we create our own gravitational field, which means that... no matter what position our ship takes in space, we here inside remain right side up.
-
Now the gravitational field of a single moving object is complicated.
-
The deeper a clock is within a gravitational field, the slower it runs.
Academic text (1996) -
After the first hit, we lost our gravitational field; I found myself weightless and unable to function.
Fiction book (1991) -
Among other things, Jason was studying anomalies in the Earth's gravitational field.
Fiction book (1990) -
What's happening is that the gravitational field of this white dwarf is so intense that it warps space-time in its immediate vicinity.
-
Subtle differences in the gravitational field cause minute changes in the trajectory of the spacecraft.
-
The twin GRAIL spacecraft measured the Moon's gravitational field with unprecedented accuracy.
Synonyms
A space where a particular force or value acts
An area around an object where it pushes or pulls other objects
An area around something where its push or pull affects other things
How Strong
- Specialized
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'gravitational' (pertaining to gravity) and 'field' (a region where a force acts): together they denote the region of space in which gravity operates. Although slightly technical, the compositional structure is clear and mirrors equivalent constructions in many languages, so a B1 learner who knows both words would understand the phrase.
Etymology
Gravitational field comes from the simple picture of an invisible field around a heavy object like Earth: the gravitational part links it to 'gravity' and the field is the space that 'pulls' other things toward the object. So, gravitational field means the area around an object where gravity acts.