Gravity satellite yields 'Potato Earth' view (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News, Munich

***
And yet, the information in this model is the sharpest view we have of how gravity varies across the Earth.

The globe has been released by the team working on Europe's Goce satellite.

It is a highly exaggerated rendering, but it neatly illustrates how the tug we feel from the mass of rock under our feet is not the same in every location.
***
Scientists say the data gathered by the super-sleek space probe is bringing a step change in our understanding of the force that pulls us downwards and the way it is shaping some key processes on Earth.

Chief among these new insights is a clearer view of how the oceans are moving and how they redistribute the heat from the Sun around the world - information that is paramount to climate studies.
***
more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12911806

[meow mix]

1. recommended

i imagine the mass of the ice caps has a large effect

[LaurenG]

2. Does this mean that North American's would weigh more if they made

a trip to Africa then they would weigh at home?


edit:clarify

[napoleon_in_rags]

7. Yep. There is an unbearable lightness of being American. nt

[Ian David]

3. The tides go in. The tides go out. Never a miscommunication. You can't explain that. n/t

[kickysnana]

4. But how much higher can one jump in the low gravity areas?

Will we have to adjust the Olympics?

Do I weigh less in different parts of the world? (I am positive my doctors office is in one of the stronger gravity areas because I am always 2 lbs heavier there than at home.)

This is the butterfly wings thing again right?

:hide:

[AtheistCrusader]

8. Funny you should ask that. Yes.

It has an impact.

"The altitude severely affected many track & field events. Bob Beamon used the lesser gravity to set a stunning world record in the long jump(/results/event/60712) of 8.90 (29’2½”). In the 100(/results/event/60512), 200, 400(/results/event/60550), 400 metre hurdles(/results/event/60611), 4 x 100 relay(/results/event/60629), 4 x 400 relay(/results/event/60638), and the (/results/event/60729), all sprint events not requiring much oxygen, and aided by the lessened pull of gravity, new world records were set by the men. Many of these records would not be broken for years.
"

From the 68 summer olympics in Mexico City.
http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1968/

[eppur_se_muova]

9. Um, actually, I thought that was due to the lower wind resistance at high altitude ...

The gravitational effects should be in the ppm range.

[AtheistCrusader]

10. I can find lots of references to it.

Recent ones as well from a physics journal that was only digressing into this subject, while primarily discussing the effect of altitude on gravitational time dilation.

[eppur_se_muova]

11. Meh, it's the air. Just google "1968 olympics altitude".

Throwing, sprinting, and jumping events benefited, endurance events suffered.

Just because gravitational effects are likely to be immeasurably small doesn't stop anyone from speculating about whether they might actually be just barely measurable. Won't be noticed by the athletes, though.

[mva92]

5. "potato earth"

funny to refer it to a potato...

[The Doctor.]

6. Near the Great Lakes, there is apparently a much larger slab of granite

beneath us. I've always felt different when I leave the area. Always 'lighter' and less depressed. I've speculated for some time that it's the minute difference in gravity that makes people from Detroit to Buffalo more depressed.