When will the gravitational force between you and the Sun be greater?

Question

Today at noon? Or tomorrow at midnight? Why?

Answer 1

F=GMm/r^2. The M and m stay the same, but r changes. Which one gives the smaller r (and hence the larger force)? If you assume a circular orbit, then the answer is clearly noon today. However, the orbit is not a circle, it is an ellipse. There are certainly days when you are closer at midnight than at noon the previous day, but if that happens, the earth is getting closer to the sun in its orbit. Today, however, the earth is actually moving away from the sun, so noon is still the correct answer. In May, the answer would be midnight.

Answer 2

Easy answer. The gravitational force between you and the earth is a direct lie between you and the center of the earth. The Gravitational force between you and the sun is a direct line between you and the sun. If it is high noon, then the center of the earth is 180 degrees off from the sun. The gravitational pull would be Sun-Earth. At midnight, the sun and the earth would be pulling in the same direction which would increase the gravitational pull in the direction of the sun. If you could do this during a new moon, then the moon would be an additional gravitational force along the same vector.

Answer 3

Well, that's a tricky one. The instinctual answer is today at noon, because we'll be closer to the Sun at that time, and you no doubt know that the force of gravity is inversely proportional to the square of distance. However, the Earth is also approaching perihelion, which occurs in early January, meaning the entire planet will be closer to the Sun tomorrow at midnight than it is today at noon. The equatorial diameter of the Earth is 12756 km, so that's how much further one is from the Sun at midnight than at noon. However, the Earth's distance from the Sun ranges from 147 to 152 million kilometers. If I assume that this distance varies uniformly, we have a change of 5 million km in six months (since perihelion and aphelion occur six months apart) or about 182 days, and 5000000/183 = 27332 km.

Now, do you mean midnight tonight or midnight tomorrow? If it's tonight, the Earth's orbit only carries it half that distance closer to the Sun, or 13661 km. That is larger than the distance the Earth's rotation carries us away in the same period, but it's so close that it calls my assumption into question and can't be relied upon. If it's accurate, though, it means that the gravity from the Sun will be greater at midnight, because we will closer even though we're facing away. If you mean midnight tomorrow, the orbit will have brought us 40984 km closer, which is more clearly larger than the distance the night moves us away, and I can more confidently say that the Sun's gravity is greater at midnight.

Answer 4

Obviously at noon as the gravitational force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the two masses. Its day on earth at a place when it faces the sun (and is hence closer) and night when it faces away from the sun :)

Answer 5

The force of gravity between two objects is a function of their masses and the distance between them.

At noon you would be 1 earth diameter closer to the sun than at midnight, so the gravitational force would be stronger.

This effect is extremely neglible, also, the earth's orbit is slightly eliptical, the earth is actually closer to the sun during winter! So the gravity between you and it would be greater during winter.

Answer 6

Today at noon. Tomorrow at midnight the earth will be between you and the sun put you farther away from the sun.

Answer 7

well, you see as others said, at noon you are closer to the son
but it's the force from son itself, at night, as earth become between you two, it's gravitational force will boost son's force in the same direction, so you are pulled to son more
but if you want the force from son itself, it will be more at noon
;)