Why Gravity Isn't (Fundamentally) a Force A Simple Pedagogical Introduction for the General Public

In elementary Newtonian mechanics, gravity is introduced as a fundamental force that causes masses to accelerate, successfully describing a wide range of everyday and astronomical phenomena. In Einstein's General Relativity, however, gravity is reinterpreted as a manifestation of spacetime curvature rather than a conventional force. This article explains in what sense "gravity is not a force'' by contrasting the Newtonian and relativistic pictures, emphasising the role of free fall and the origin of the sensation of weight. We briefly develop the mathematical framework of General Relativity — metric, geodesics, and Einstein's field equations — to show how motion in a gravitational field arises from geometry alone, without an explicit force term. We also compare gravity with electromagnetism, a genuine force field acting on charge in flat spacetime, to highlight why gravity is more naturally understood as the structure of the spacetime arena itself. Throughout, we stress that the familiar Newtonian gravitational force remains an excellent description in appropriate limits, even though it is not fundamental in the relativistic framework.