Where are the maximum gravitational force?surface of the earth, centre of the earth,above the earth ?

Answer 1

Surface of the Earth, assuming a spherical earth.

Gravitational force weakens with distance as 1/r^2. However, the part of earth's mass that causes the force you feel depends on the mass between you and the center.

At the center, the force on you would be zero. (Nothing between you and the center.)

As you move up toward the surface, the force will increase linearly with distance form the center. This is because the mass between you and the center increases as r^3, while the force still weakens as 1/r^2, giving a total increase in force proportional to r.

Once you leave earth's surface, the 1/r^2 factor is still there, but the mass between you and earth's center is now constant, so the force weakens as 1/r^2.

Therefore, it's maximum at the surface.

Note to genericman1998 (below): D'oh! You caught me. I meant to type "assuming a *uniform* spherical earth". You're right that the density is not uniform

However, that probably won't change things much. It would still make the force zero at the center, and highest at the surface if we consider only the three points in the original question. A non-uniform earth will complicate the calculation. You'd need to do an integral to get the encolsed mass as a function of r, then differentiate the total force with respect to r to find the point of highest g.

Answer 2

The gravitational pull experienced by an object is (M x m) / Dx D.where, M = mass of the earth; m = wt or mass of the object and D = distance between the centres of the two bodies. The value of this is maximum at the poles because the distance there from the centre of earth is less than the distance at the equator. At the cente of the earth the value of M becomes zero, hence there is no gravitational pull. Therefore an object will weigh more at the poles than at the equator when a spring balance is used. A double pan balance will indicate the same weight at both places.

Answer 3

Surface. It decreases as the inverse square as you go up, and linearly to zero as you go to the center.
Examples:

At the surface you are 4,000 miles from the center and gravity is 1G.

At 4,000 miles above the surface you are 8,000 miles from the center, which is twice as far from the center, and gravity is 1/4 G.

At 2,000 miles below the surface, you are half way to the center and gravity is 1/2G.

At the center, gravity is zero.

Theoretically, gravity would be 0 at infinite distance, but in reality, even at a distance of billions of light years, Earth's gravity is very slightly more than 0.

Answer 4

A note for Mr. Upright:
The linear increase in g holds only if the Earth's density is uniform. Is that the case?

Answer 5

common misconception is -at centre but answer is at surface of earth --at poles specially

it is not at middle of earth because - Gforce = (Me X Mx X G)/ R^2
r = 0 & resultant Me also becomes 0 hence Gforce is not infinite but is = 0.

Answer 6

the normal gravitational pull is 9.8m/s2
but it is 9,75m/s2 on south and north pole of earth becoz their earth surface is bit flattened.

Answer 7

GRAVITATIONAL FORCE IS CONSTAN ALONG EARTH. I UNDERSTOOD WHAT U WANT TO ASK THAT IS WHY OBJECT THAT IS AT (X+5)M UP STRIKES MORE HARDER THAN IT WOULD HAVE BEEN AT (X)M HEIGHT. thIS IS BECAUSE IT'S POTENTIAL ENERGY = mass * gravity * height IS HEGHER THAN THE LATTER. I HOPE U GOT IT. OR SEND MORE QUESTIONS AT [e-mail]

Answer 8

On the surface. Figure this, the farther you are away from on object the less you are affected by it's gravity.

Answer 9

center of the earth

Answer 10

if on the earth definetely on the poles. may be even in the center