Newton's law of gravitation is:
F=Gm1m21r2
It looks simple and natural.
But that's only in 3 dimensions. Let's look what happens in n dimensions:
n=2:F=2Gm1m21r
Oh no! Newton's force law becomes cluttered with unintuitive constants! But by defining G∗=4πG Newton's law of gravitation can be reformulated as such:
F=G∗m1m214πr2
Immediately we recognize that 4πr2 is simply the surface area of a sphere of radius r.
But that's only in 3 dimensions. Let's look what happens in n dimensions:
n=2:F=G∗m1m212πr
2πr is the surface area of a 2 dimensional sphere of radius r.
2π2r3 is the surface area of a 4 dimensional sphere of radius r.
83π2r4 is the surface area of a 5 dimensional sphere of radius r.
π3r5 is the surface area of a 6 dimensional sphere of radius r.
Newton's law of gravitation in n dimensions is:
F=G∗m1m21Sn
Where Sn is simply the surface area of a n dimensional sphere of radius r. From this, it seems like G∗ would be a nicer definition for the gravitational constant.
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