If you were to dig a hole an sit in it, would you weigh more then the people above you?

Question

Since of course, you would normally think that gravity increases as you get closer to the center of the earth. But why does gravity increase as you get closer to the center/core, since-------

Gravity and the size of the planet are realted.
For example Jupiter has more gravity then earth because it is bigger, so therefore the smaller the planet the less the gravity, when you dig a whole should'nt there be less gravity since there is less mass underneath you?
Any website covering the problem would be great, or even a opinion.
I need something to work off of, for a theory.

Answer 1

You would weigh minutely more because you are closer to the center of mass (you, I assume ,didn't blow off half the planet and therefore didn't displace enough of the mass to worry about having "less mass underneath you"). Even if you dug away a great deal of dirt, gravity is due to the overall mass of the object so unless you move the dirt you dug up away from the planet it still has the same gravity. What you weigh has to do with the gravity at your elevation from the center of mass. Lower elevation means you will expirience stronger gravity.

It is true that the further you go from the center of mass the less gravity you expirience (the slower the rate of acceleration). People who live high in the mountains really do weigh less than they do at sealevel (however this is hardly detectable even at these great distances). Physicists often joke about this being the easiest way to lose weight. They also apply this to the whole relativity thing slowing down time and point out that time moves more slowly at lower elevations (in higher gravity)*.

If it was the other way around then wouldn't astronauts weigh more in Earth orbit rather than less?

Answer 2

No. You would weigh less. Your second paragraph has the right idea, there is less mass underneath you. Your weight increases linearly as you get further from the center of the earth (meaning if you dug hallfway to the center, you would weigh half). The linear increasing weight continues upward until there is no more matter (the surface of the earth). Then as you go off the surface of the earth, your weight drops as 1/r^2. You can solve this using Gauss' law.

Answer 3

Einstein's formula basically divides the product of the mass of two objects with the square of the distance between two objects. This distance is most often considered to be measured to the core of the two objects. The closer your core gets to the earth's core, the smaller the number resulting in a larger gravitational force.

This should be easily observed in an experiment by weighing yourself accurately on top of a mountain surrounding Death Valley and on the desert floor within a few minutes or measuring yourself on the surface and then a couple of hundred feet down in a mine shaft.

Answer 4

Dude, You are right when you say that our weight increases as we go down to the core. And it increases as we move closer to the equator due to the spinning force of the earth ( bulging).

But jupiter is not have gravity cause of its weight, its the weight because of the gravity (here we mean mass instead of weight).
More the gravitational fore more mass ets stuck to it and more mass is jupiter.

Here are some stuff that helped me.

Peace out.

Answer 5

Gravity has two conditions. The mass and the speed of rotation. The larger the body and the faster the spin, the greater the gravitational pull.

According to your assumption people living in the mountains would weigh lesser than people living below. I don't think that is the case. Or people living in the top floor of an apartment complex will weigh lesser than the ones below. Hmmmm.....

Answer 6

if you dig a hole and sit in it, you'll weigh LESS, not more.

why?

Because although you get a bit closer to the center of the Earth, on the other hand the bit of Earth that is now above, not below, you, starts pulling you up.

If the Earth was solid, and you could dig a hole through it, you'd find that in the very center you'd weigh nothing - because all of the Earth would be pulling you OUT in all directions.

Answer 7

Yes

Answer 8

I dont know, but i did stay at a holiday inn last night.

Jk, but serioulsy thats a great question. Yes, you would weigh less, im not sure how much less but it is definately a small number. Sorry I can't give you a more concrete answer.

Answer 9

Yes, you would weigh more, but not alot more (maybe 100.0000001% your normal weight).