Newton's law predicts how force changes with distance; which description correctly captures this relationship?

• A. Inversely proportional to the square of the distance
• B. Directly proportional to the distance
• C. Independent of distance
• D. Proportional to distance squared

Answer: (A)

The key idea is the inverse-square relationship: the force between two objects falls off as the distance between them grows, specifically F ∝ 1/r^2. This means if you double the separation, the force becomes one quarter; triple the distance, and it becomes one ninth. This is the behavior seen in gravity (and in Coulomb’s law for electric forces) and explains why forces weaken quickly as objects move apart. The correct description is that the force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance. The other options would imply the force gets larger with distance, stays the same regardless of distance, or grows with the distance squared, all of which contradict the observed inverse-square behavior.