ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Gravitational acceleration

Okay kiddo, imagine that you and your friend are jumping on a trampoline. When you jump, you go up and then back down because of gravity. Gravity is a force that pulls everything on Earth towards the center of the planet. That's why we don't float away into space!

Now, there is something called gravitational acceleration. This is the speed at which things fall towards the ground because of gravity. It's like how fast you fall back down on the trampoline after you jump.

Gravitational acceleration is always the same on Earth and is about 9.81 meters per second squared (m/s^2) or 32 feet per second squared (ft/s^2). This means that for every second you fall, you are going faster by 9.81 meters per second (or 32 feet per second).

Even things that are really heavy, like a big rock or a car, will fall towards the ground at the same rate as something lighter, like a feather or a leaf. It might not seem like it because heavier things will hit the ground harder, but that's because they have more mass (stuff that makes them heavy), not because they fall faster.

So, there you have it, gravitational acceleration is how fast things fall towards the ground because of gravity, and it's always the same on Earth.