If the Earth was hollow, would there be gravity inside it?

Answer 1

All mass in the universe is gravitationally attracted to all other mass in the universe. "Gravity" exists everywhere.

That said, the effects of gravity can be canceled out. If gravity pulls you one way, something else can pull the other way and cause an effective "weightlessness" as if there was no gravity.

To analyze this question easier, let us neglect all the other celestial bodies in the universe (like the sun, other stars, planets,), and only deal with the Earth.
In this case, if you Earth were a uniform, hollow, spherical shell, then ANYWHERE inside, the net gravitational force would be zero...in effect there would be no "gravity" / gravitational force.
The math which goes into proving this fact is beyond the scope of this post, but if you were anywhere inside a uniform spherical shell...there would be no net gravitational attract because of the symmetry of the system.
Think of it like this...If you were in the exact center of the sphere, I think it is pretty easy to conceptualize the fact that all the Earth's mass would be pulling you equally in all directions because you are in the center, thus no gravity. But it is also true if you are not in the center, but rather closer to one 'side' of the sphere than the other. If you are closer to the shell, you are that much closer to some mass which will pull on you...but the amount of mass which pulls on you is less than if you were in the center, the other mass is pulling the opposite direction so the net effect is zero.
You might recognize this effect is similar to that of electric fields inside charged conducting spherical shells if you have studied Gauss's law.

If we then take the other celestial bodies into consideration again, then there would be a net gravitational force…the same force which keeps you and the Earth in orbit around the sun and the rest of the galaxy.

Answer 2

If earth was hollow, none of us would be here.
The force of gravity is determined by mass -- a "hollow" earth (forget for a moment that nothing this big with a hollow center could ever hold itself together against collapse, it would pull itself into a solid sphere pretty quickly) wouldn't have much mass, and so the force of gravity at the surface would be tiny compared to the 1g we have now.
The center of gravity of any mass is always the center of the volume of the mass...so yes, theoretically a hollow sphere with a shell would still have its center of gravity at the center of the sphere. But such a construct as big as the earth would never stay together.

Answer 3

Oh dear.

There is zero gravitational force anywhere inside a hollow spherical shell. (There is, in fact, a generalization of this theorem, proved by Newton: there is zero gravitional force anywhere inside a homeid, which is a shell formed by two similar ellipsoids.)

The Earth is, of course, not hollow. But if you were somehow able to make a hollow chamber centered on the center of the Earth, you would float weightless anywhere inside that chamber.

"Would there be gravity inside it?" The gravitational potential inside a hollow shell is different from the gravitational potential outside it. This has observable effects: for example, a clock inside the shell would tick at a different rate from a clock far from the hollow shell. So in that sense, there is still gravity, although there is no gravitational force.

Answer 4

Yes, there would.

Actually, there would be a place, which would move about as things on the surface moved about and the Earth slips through space, where the net gravity would be zero, kind of a free fall center of the earth. But even though that place would feel equal tugs of gravity from all directions (net of zero remember) gravity is still there, tugging, tugging, tugging.

And, obviously, all the other places inside the earth would feel a net gravitational pull toward somewhere on the inner surface.

Answer 5

Gravity is a basic force of the universe, and exists everywhere to some degree in some direction. (The exception, as some scientists believe today, is that gravity not only is inversely proportional to distance between two masses, but may not exist in some far reaches of the universe.)

Answer 6

Gravity is the nature of the mass of matter . This in fact should have some relation to the atom.the proton in the atom has gravity consistent with its size . all the earth is made of compounds made of the elements which have atoms with the electrons and protons . it is the cumulative effect Of the gravity of the protons that is gravity of the earth .If the earth were hollow , its density would be mush less and it would contain much little mass and this would considerably reduce the gravity .Gravity does not exist in vacuum and therefore it does not reside in the hollow . It always resides in the protons of atoms of elements of which the earth is made of .In the hollow there being no matter inside the hollow , there won't be any gravity if the earth were to be hollow .

Answer 7

You have posed an interesting question that really does need an answer. The reason for the necessity of an answer to you question lies in the present information we have concerning mass acceleration at different levels within our planet and our sun.

At a distance of 400 miles from within our sun's center, mass would be accelerating to a speed greater than that of the speed of light. Within our own planet, were a person able to release a mass 0.717 miles from its center, and were the mass to be able to fall freely, it would immediately accelerate to a speed 25 mps (miles per second) less than that of the speed of light. At the 0.716 location from the center of our planet the mass would be exceeding the speed of light.

Mass cannot exceed the speed of light. So, what is happening within the 800 mile diameter area of our sun and the 1 1/2 mile diameter area within our planet? It appears large solar masses are hollow, and yet we have the force of gravity in effect.

Answer 8

Yes. Mass and gravity go hand in hand. Gravity would be toward the crust.

Answer 9

Actually I think gravity may be caused by inertia of the earth and those things on it moving through time and space. So hollow would not be material.

Answer 10

yes, until you reach the center of gravity or no because you don't have a place to stand inside and you would be in free fall.