Newton's Law of Gravitation According to Newton's Third Law: A Revised Gravitational Constant and Planck Units

Newton's law of universal gravitation is traditionally interpreted as describing a single mutual gravitational interaction between two bodies. In the present work, an alternative interpretation based on Newton's Third Law is proposed, in which the gravitational interaction is represented by four individual interaction forces organized into two action–reaction pairs. Under this interpretation, the experimentally observed gravitational force remains unchanged, while the gravitational constant becomes G′ = G/2. The corresponding Einstein gravitational constant is then examined and shown to retain its conventional value. Combining the present result with the geometrical modifications introduced in the author's previous work, Physical Constants and Geometry, gives the combined gravitational constant Gβ = 2πG. The Planck units are subsequently recalculated using Gβ. The proposed interaction-force representation preserves all mathematical predictions of Newtonian gravitation while providing an alternative representation of the gravitational interaction consistent with Newton's Third Law.