system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Where is the "equal but opposite" force where gravity is concerned?

We all know that things with energy are gravitationally attracted to each other. We also know that every force has an equal but opposite reaction... Is this some special case where Newton's third law doesn't apply? Or are two bodies that are attracted to each other pushing away on the fabric of space-time or something?

Non-physics-major answer, if possible please!

EDIT: Answered! Thanks guys! My mistake was in viewing gravity as a one-body as opposed to a two-body system. Two forces toward each other are necessarily in opposite directions, satisfying the third law... makes sense. I guess I was overthinking it.
gpt
Newton's Third Law implies that every object that is pulled towards another object, in return also pulls that other object towards itself. Similarly, anything that pushes against an object also has the object push back with equal force.

Now with gravity, the Earth pulls us towards it. But in return, each of us also exerts an equal force on the Earth. A typical adult male will exert roughly 800 N of gravity on Earth. What effect does this have on our little planet? Well, we know that force equals mass times acceleration, or *F = m a*, which you can rewrite to *a = F / m*. In this case, the acceleration experienced by the Earth due to this specific person is really small, because the term in the denominator, the mass of the Earth, is really large.