Comment by antod

Yup, knew that equation. My point was I only ever recalled the effects of gravity on mass being called a force, and never gravity itself being called a force. eg no mass, no force - gravity being a field that causes forces (on mass) rather than the force itself.

That distant memory came from engineering school, where it was classical mechanics all the way down. The only non classical stuff was just a tiny amount in a first year physics paper.

Then again, maybe the way classical physics got taught was a bit different after Einstein so as not to directly contradict relativity. Eg maybe before relativity it really was described as a force?