The Probert Encyclopaedia of Science & Technology

ATTRACTION

Attraction is the tendency of all material bodies, whether masses or particles, to approach each other, to unite, and to remain united. It was Isaac Newton that first adopted the theory of a universal attractive force, and determined its laws. When bodies tend to come together from sensible distances the tendency is termed either the attraction of gravitation, magnetism, or electricity, according to circumstances; when the attraction operates at insensible distances it is known as adhesion with respect to surfaces, as cohesion with respect to the particles of a body, and as affinity when the particles of different bodies tend together. It is by the attraction of gravitation that all bodies fall to the earth when unsupported.
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