Acceleration due to gravity below earth

AI Thread Summary
As one descends below the Earth's surface, the acceleration due to gravity initially increases and then decreases, reaching zero at the center of the Earth. This phenomenon occurs because the gravitational attraction from a spherical shell of mass cancels out within the shell, resulting in weightlessness at the core. However, despite the lack of gravitational pull, the immense pressure at the Earth's center would be felt. The gravitational force experienced underground varies based on the density and thickness of the Earth's crust above, with deviations from a simple model due to geological variations. Understanding these principles is crucial for grasping the complexities of gravity beneath the Earth's surface.
holtvg
Messages
17
Reaction score
0
How does the acceleration due to gravity change as you go underneath the earth, someone told me that it increases then decreases as you approach the core, so theoretically the acceleration due to gravity at the center of the Earth or the inner core is zero? So would you be weightless at the inner core?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
I'm not exactly sure if you'd feel weightless...you'll be feeling quite an amount of pressure.
 
If you solve the integral for the gravitational attraction from a homogeneous spherical shell, it is the same as a point source from the outside, but the gravitational attraction anywhere inside the sphere is zero.

So if you regard the Earth as a set of concentric shells, a good first order approximation, the gravity you feel goes down in say, a gold mine, proportional to the amount of the Earth's crust that you are under. In reality there are deviations from this model. Oceans are less dense than land, and have thinner crust underneath, while the crust under mountains is thicker and so on.
 
The rope is tied into the person (the load of 200 pounds) and the rope goes up from the person to a fixed pulley and back down to his hands. He hauls the rope to suspend himself in the air. What is the mechanical advantage of the system? The person will indeed only have to lift half of his body weight (roughly 100 pounds) because he now lessened the load by that same amount. This APPEARS to be a 2:1 because he can hold himself with half the force, but my question is: is that mechanical...
Hello everyone, Consider the problem in which a car is told to travel at 30 km/h for L kilometers and then at 60 km/h for another L kilometers. Next, you are asked to determine the average speed. My question is: although we know that the average speed in this case is the harmonic mean of the two speeds, is it also possible to state that the average speed over this 2L-kilometer stretch can be obtained as a weighted average of the two speeds? Best regards, DaTario
Some physics textbook writer told me that Newton's first law applies only on bodies that feel no interactions at all. He said that if a body is on rest or moves in constant velocity, there is no external force acting on it. But I have heard another form of the law that says the net force acting on a body must be zero. This means there is interactions involved after all. So which one is correct?
Back
Top