General Discussions > Skepticism / Science Talk
Natural Zero Gravity spot on Earth?
Igor SMC:
So, i was wondering: what if there was a chamber at the size of a huge stadium at the center of gravity of our planet? Each particle of our bodies would be attracted by the same amount of mass from each direction, thus cancelling out each other? I thought a lot about it, and it keeps making a lot of sense to me. I tried searching for "zero gravity on earth" but all the results from google refer to simulations, like those in a free fall airplane.
Can anyone here who knows more about physics tell me if this hypothesis is correct?
Trinoc:
If you could hollow out a sphere of any size centred inside of a uniform spherical planet (Earth would be a reasonable approximation of this) then the gravitational field from the planet would be zero at every point within that sphere.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_theorem
Beη:
--- Quote from: Trinoc on Jul 27, 2012, 03:45:54 PM ---If you could hollow out a sphere of any size centred inside of a uniform spherical planet (Earth would be a reasonable approximation of this) then the gravitational field from the planet would be zero at every point within that sphere.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_theorem
--- End quote ---
Yeah, this blew my mind when I first learned it. Heck, it still kinda blows my mind. :D
But anyway, it's worth mentioning that this applies only to a totally isolated uniform sphere. If you were inside a hollowed out portion of a uniform and perfectly spherical earth, you'd still feel the gravitational effects of the other planets. Just pointing this out so that no one gets excited and tries to build some sort of a zero gravity sphere in their backyard.
PANTS!:
Reminds me of Gravity Trains
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_train
Igor SMC:
@Trinoc Thanks for the info! This is the same law that dictates the strength of the electric field on spherical sources?
@Beη But the gravity pull from the other planets wouldn't be negligible?
The question is: If we could build a chamber that could withstand the extremes temperatures and pressure of the Earth's inner core, would a person inside of it float, exactly as if he was in outer space? Or it MUST be a perfect spherical and isolated body so this phenomena could be observed?
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