Astronomy Picture Of The Day : A Gravity Map of Earth

NASA ^ | 11.13.01 | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)

[WyldKard]

Thanks for the ping, Callisto. BTW, did you adopt your screen name in honor of Jacque Cousteau's boat? [That was his boats name, right - Callisto?].

I believe it's actually the Calypso

I could be wrong though...

[DouglasKC]

(lifting eyebrow) Fascinating....and bookmarked for later study.

[Colosis]

I believe it's actually the Calypso

I think John Denver wrote a song in honour of it too.

[Landru]

One might've reasonably thought most of the planet's sucking would easily be centered somewhere in Harlem, New York.

Who'd a thunk it.

[Benrand]

I notice Hollywood has almost no gravity...funny.

[Chemist_Geek]

So there you have it, dieters. If you want to LOSE weight, go on a cruise of the Indian Coast. If you want to GAIN weight, go on a cruise in the South Pacific. The side benefit? No terrorism on Cruise Ships yet. . .

No, they wrecked that, too. Remember the Achille Lauro?

[MeekOneGOP]

I believe it's actually the Calypso

I could be wrong though...

No, I think you're correct and thanks for confirming my "tentative" correction on post #14. I realized my error when I hit the "post" button. Oops! ;-)

[DB]

I would assume gravity levels would change like the tides caused by the location of the moon, sun and even the planets. What are the relative differences between the peaks and valleys?

Interesting, thanks for the post and flag.

[XA-3Whaler]

Interesting Map.... Does anyone know if you weigh less on top of MT. Everest compared at sea level?

[MeekOneGOP]

No, they wrecked that, too. Remember the Achille Lauro?

Oh, yeah! That's right. I'd forgotten:

The hijacking of the Achille Lauro, an Italian luxury cruise ship, took place on Monday, October 7, 1985. What makes this particular event noteworthy, was that the unofficial, secret SEAL Team 6 was deployed by President Reagan as a measure to be used to retake the ship by force!

The morning of Oct 7, four members of the Palestine Liberation Front, or PLF, walked out of cabin 82, and into the main dining room, where a small number of passengers were. The majority of the passengers were off the ship in Alexandria, Egypt, on a tour of the area when the terrorists attacked. Walking into the room, they began firing their weapons at random, wounding two people before stopping. Armed with AK-47s, grenades, and handguns, the four terrorists gathered up the 320 crewmen and 80 remaining passengers, and began seperating them by nationality. The American and British hostages were placed together and surrounded with oil drums, which the terrorists threatened to light on fire. They then ordered the ships Captain to set sail for the Syrian port of Tartus.

Here's the link to the entire story:

The Achille Lauro Hijacking

( http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/7965/achille.html )

Thanks, friend, for the reminder!

[WyldKard]

Interesting Map.... Does anyone know if you weigh less on top of MT. Everest compared at sea level?

If I understand my Physics 103 class correctly, then answer is technically yes. We measure gravitic pull from the center of the particular mass, outwards. The further you are from the center of the Earth, the less of an effect Earth's gravity has on you. So technically, yes, you would weigh a teeny, tiny, itty-bit less on top of Mt. Everest than at sea level. Also, time would move somewhat faster at the top, than at sea level.

[callisto]

And for anyone interested in the Leonid Shower this week I'll post the link to the Leonid Forcast For 30 Major US Cities

DustBunny and Maringa - re: What difference in weight would occur if you weighed 100 lbs in the lowest gravity zone and then moved to the highest gravity zone?

You would need the map legend to calculate the differences. I searched everywhere I could think of to find either another picture or map legend to this one, but to no avail.

[mtngrl@vrwc]

Hm....maybe this would account for the fact that I always weigh more when I go to the doctor! LOL!

[SlightOfTongue]

Bull crap! You can't fool me!

This is a hidden toilet camera view of Hillary wearing a tacky 70's bathing suit.

[callisto]

ROTFLOL!!!!

[6ppc]

Diego Garcia here I come!

[Dixie Mom]

Psychedelic, bay-bee! Way cool bump.

[blam]

A map used by migratory animals?

[Chemist_Geek]

If I understand my Physics 103 class correctly, then answer is technically yes. We measure gravitic pull from the center of the particular mass, outwards. The further you are from the center of the Earth, the less of an effect Earth's gravity has on you. So technically, yes, you would weigh a teeny, tiny, itty-bit less on top of Mt. Everest than at sea level. Also, time would move somewhat faster at the top, than at sea level.

Remember Newton's Law of Gravitation? F=G.M.m.(r^-2). The force between two bodies is inverse-square proportional to the distance between them. At the top of Mt. Everest, one's center-of-mass is several thousand feet further away from the center-of-mass of the Earth than at sea level.

[Physicist]

You will weigh more on top of Mt. Everest. You would be right about the inverse square law if the Earth were smooth, but that is more than compensated by the gravity from Everest itself. Look at the big blue-and-white blob over the Himalayas!

Furthermore, you will have an additional weight gain from the loss of buoyancy caused by the relative thinness of the air. I'm not sure whether this will be greater or less than the change in gravity. Both effects are small.