Since the earth moves around the sun in an elliptical orbit and the sun is located at one of the foci, hence the distance between the earth and the sun continuously changes, so why doesn't the force of gravitation change throughout the year as the masses of the bodies obviously remain the same?
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2Why do you think it doesn't change? – ACuriousMind Jul 14 '20 at 14:58
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I really can't seem to figure it out, it may be the fact that the values of the major and minor axis of the elliptical orbit might be nearly same, therefore accounting for about negligible change, other than that I have no idea. – pyridine Jul 14 '20 at 15:07
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Forget about "throughout the year." There's a daily cycle. If the Sun is directly above your head, then it and the Earth will pull you in opposite directions, and then 12 hours later, when the Sun is beneath your feet, it and the Earth will be pulling you in the same direction. – Solomon Slow Jul 14 '20 at 17:20
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It does change but we can't feel that change. The reasons we can't feel it are described in the answers to Why don't we feel the subtle speed change of Earth's elliptical orbit?
However, while we cannot feel the change in the gravitational force exerted on the Earth by the Sun, we can feel the change in the distance variation of that force i.e. in the tides. The tidal range is greater when the Earth is closest to the Sun than it is when the Earth is farthest from the Sun, and this change is easily observable. If you are interested in learning more about this see the excellent NASA article on tides.
John Rennie
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Thank for this answer, however to clarify why don't we feel that change? Even though it might not be a lot, shouldn't that still be enough to cause some impact to us? – pyridine Jul 14 '20 at 15:17
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1@RishitaAgrawal The reasons why we can't feel the change are explained in detail in the answers to the question I linked. – John Rennie Jul 14 '20 at 15:47
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