Eötvös experiment

The Eötvös experiment tested whether gravity affects different materials equally, by comparing how their weights change in Earth's gravitational field. Using a sensitive device called a torsion balance, Eötvös observed whether different substances experienced any differences in gravitational pull. His results showed that all materials are affected equally by gravity, supporting the idea that gravitational acceleration is the same regardless of an object’s composition. This experiment provided strong evidence for the equivalence principle, which is fundamental to Einstein's theory of general relativity, shaping our understanding of gravity as a curvature of spacetime rather than a force acting differently on different materials.