Do I weigh more at night than during the day because of the gravitational pull of the sun?

Question

At midnight, the gravitational pull of the sun will pull me towards the earth, and at noon it will pull me away from the earth. How much of an effect will that have?

Answer 1

Not much. The moon actually has more effect... recall, if you will, that lunar tides are bigger than solar tides.

Answer 2

Neither, because it is more complex than just where the Sun is. There are compelx dynamical interactions going on between the Earth and Sun and Moon and planets and even the galaxy. For example, the tides are usually though of as the Moon's gravity pulling water up when it is overhead, but there are two high tides per day; one on the same side as the Moon and one on the opposite side of Earth. This is because the Moon does not orbit a stationary Earth; the Earth and Moon orbit each other around their common center of gravity. Because the Earth is much bigger than the Moon, that center of gravity is much closer to the center of the Earth than it is to the center of the Moon. But since it is not AT the center of the Earth, there is some centrifugal force on the opposite side causing that other high tide. A similar effect is going on between the Earth and Sun. This is just a small sample of the many factors that you should have to consider to calculate your exact theoretical weight at different times of day. But in any case, the difference would be extremely small. Too small to measure easily and totally unimportant.

Answer 3

Actually, the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon will affect your weight depending on where on Earth you are standing relative to the position of the two bodies. However, the effect will be so miniscule that there is no known device that will measure it or detect it. In other words, if you normally weigh 120 pounds, you might weigh 120.0000001 or 119.999999 depending on the position of the sun and moon. Do you think that counts?

Answer 4

The suns effect will be marginally, (too small to
measure), greater during the night, but not
for the reason you suppose.
You & the earth are in free fall orbit around
the sun. (You "weigh" nothing).
Because the earth is rotating, your velocity,
(except at the poles), changes.
Since you're moving slower at night,
(tend to fall in toward the sun),and faster during
the day,(tend to fall out away from the sun),
you will 'weigh` more at noon and midnight than
at dawn & dusk.

Answer 5

Gravity depends on mass, and the mass of the earth stays relatively constant, certainly constant day and night over short periods, so the pull does not change. The moon rotates around the Earth, so the effect of the moon's gravity on our oceans changes as it rotates, so that is what we have low and high tides, but the overall effect of gravity there does not change much either.

Answer 6

Tides distort the shape of the Earth, which cancels most of the theoretic change based on a perfectly rigid Earth. The difference would be very small, anyway.

Answer 7

The Earth is what exerts the most force on you, all mass exerts force on other mass however, as demonstrated by the Law of Universal Gravitation. (a Blue Whale one meter away from a Great White Shark has approximately 1 newton of force between them, you exert forces on your neighbor, etc)

Answer 8

It is negligible compared to the gravitational field of the moon which is much closer to earth. The moon exerts a pull on the oceans of the earth which is visible at the tides.

Answer 9

Not enough to measure. We are so far from the moon that the gravitational pull from the moon is negligible, relative to the pull from the earth.

Answer 10

yes. but if the moon is pulling you up, then the moon will have more of an effect than the sun. also if the death star is nearby, it will affect your weight

Answer 11

The answer is no.
Your weight on Earth is determined by your mass, and how Earth's gravity affects that mass.