Abstract

Principles of the law of universal gravitation applied to the potential to attract people. This work discusses the association of the Law of Universal Gravitation to estimate the potential to attract people by municipality, aiming to investigate regional economic dynamics. Such conceptions were applied in an experiment involving information of the flows of passengers in the intercity public transportation in the Second Paraná Plateau, State of Paraná, Brazil, besides economic factor of the regions. The flows observed in the intercity public transportation are proportional to the size of the population masses and inversely proportional to the distance that separates the municipalities. Therefore, according to the Law of Universal Gravitation, the larger the population in the municipality and the more centralized the force, the greater the potential to attract people. However, with the exhaustion of the production factor land in the central location, occurs greater use of this factor than other places, resulting in an increase in prices in areas adjacent to or closer it. Other associations are also presenter in this paper, including applications of the law of universal gravitation in studies of regional economic dynamics.

Authors and Affiliations