Acceleration Due to Earth's Gravity

If the earth stops rotating, the apparent value of g on its surface will:

remain the same everywhere increase at some places and remain the same at some other places increase everywhere decrease everywhere

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2 solutions

Arjen Vreugdenhil
Jan 13, 2018

The apparent value of g g includes a "centrifugal component", accounting for the fact that, due to inertia, objects on earth tend to travel in a straight line rather than following the earth's curvature. This centrifugal component makes everything appear approximately 0.1% lighter than it really is. Its magnitude is Δ g c p = ω 2 r , \Delta g_{cp} = -\omega^2r, where ω \omega is the angular frequency of the earth's rotation and r = R sin λ r = R\sin\lambda the radius of the circle on which a point of earth is rotating. ( λ \lambda is the latitude of your location on earth). The radius of this circle is greatest for points on the equator λ = 0 \lambda = 0 and zero on the poles λ = ± 9 0 \lambda = \pm 90^\circ .

Stopping the rotation of the earth would take away this centrifugal component, Δ g c p \Delta g_{cp} , thereby generally increasing the apparent value of g g . However, " at some other places ", that is, on the north and south poles, Δ g c p = 0 \Delta g_{cp} = 0 , so that stopping the earth's rotation has no effect; only here it remains the same .

I would request that lambda be clearly defined for those who may wish to learn further from your answer.

A Former Brilliant Member - 3 years, 4 months ago

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Sure. I'll add a note.

Arjen Vreugdenhil - 3 years, 4 months ago

Increase at equators and remain same at poles. Pretty simple!

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