Where is Earth's gravity stongest?

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Yes, its nice to see when a questions gives an unexpected answer. I guess it has yet to be seen if instant knowledge is good for the progress of mankind or not. I do catch myself looking up extremely basal stuff every now and then, things that people 100 year ago would know by hearth. (who had the proper education). In this case I think it is also nice to understand why gravity is larger at the core layer edge. Had you posted that image as first reply, I doubt I would have given it as much thought as I did now.

Originally posted by Arbitrageur
Sorry my friend, this is one of the few times I've seen you be wrong, you're usually right!

Am I allowed to keep just a tiny bit of my reputation? Or does it all automatically transfer to my conquerer? I went away, cleared my head, and sat down and did the math for myself (not PLB's math, but the function describing g with depth, as it's outlined in that Wikipedia article... though, I didn't read it until after)... g goes linearly to 0 at the center of a mass with uniform density, and g is concave parabolic for a mass with density that decreases linearly with radial distance.
Who knew? My convictions don't decide reality. I might take that with me when I preach tomorrow.

gravity is pretty well uniform across the surface of the Earth...
but

there are gravity spots where gravity is greater as measured by satellites designed to measure gravity


these 'intense' or 'weak' gravity spots are in areas generally acknowledged as having been compacted by mile high Glaciers in the past--- and therefore having more densely packed soil & rocks which was then filled in with the layers of dust/earth that was blown onto the surface inundation over the centuries


these anomalies of the not-so-uniform gravity was discovered in the late 1950s when Sputnik and
Explorer were sent into orbit... TelStar followed later and thats when i think the orbital altitude changes (due to gravity inconsistancies) was found


hey, i learned first hand, didn't have to study history about the gravity spots or gravity nots

Originally posted by repressed
If you approximate the earth as a uniform sphere, gravity will be strongest on the surface, and will decrease as you drill down (think of it at the extreme of drilling - at the centre - you will be pulled in all directions around you, meaning the force is exactly 0 and you are weightless)

This is quite true, if the earth were a uniform sphere....but it's anything but. It is much more massive and dense toward's the center....meaning the deeper you go, the greater gravity should become.....

reply to post by BagBing


reply to post by bhornbuckle75




The closer you get to the core, the less gravity you have, actually.

The strongest point of gravity of the earth would be located at the midpoint of the densest radius of matter.

Possibly, it would be closer to the core if the other half of the radius was dense as well.

reply to post by Gorman91


This has all been settled. See the bottom of the last page and the top of this one.

Originally posted by spy66
Gravity as in why the apple falls to the ground is do to the differential in mass of the apple compared to the the atmosphere that surrounds it.

A apple will fall faster where the atmosphere pressure is less compressed. The higher up you go into our atmosphere the faster the apple will accelerate if you drop it.

That doesn't mean that gravity is stronger under those conditions, only that the resistance is weaker.

reply to post by CLPrime


Huzzah! I was correct!

Good to know that my mind can simulate those things within some degree of accuracy.

I still believe that we are being pushed and not pulled.

The place on the Earth's surface where gravity is at its strongest is the North Pole. This is because both of the Earth's poles are slightly flattened and are therefore a bit closer to the centre of the Earth, and the centre of the Earth is where the gravity is at its strongest throughout the whole planet. The South Pole is located on a very high plateau, so the gravity is a bit less than that at the North Pole, which is in the middle of the Arctic Ocean.

Originally posted by RMFX1

Originally posted by spy66
Gravity as in why the apple falls to the ground is do to the differential in mass of the apple compared to the the atmosphere that surrounds it.

A apple will fall faster where the atmosphere pressure is less compressed. The higher up you go into our atmosphere the faster the apple will accelerate if you drop it.

That doesn't mean that gravity is stronger under those conditions, only that the resistance is weaker.

But that is what gravity is. Gravity is less resistance.

The reason earth has mass weight at the core/center, is because of the earth atmosphere.

The atmosphere is the reason why a apple falls to the ground and stays there.