Differentiate between centrifugal and gravitational force.
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
Gravity is strongest at the poles because they are closest to the center of mass. This difference is enhanced by the increasing density toward the center.
Centrifugal effect is caused by inertia: An object in motion keeps moving at the same speed in the same direction unless a force acts on it. Everything on the rotating Earth tries to keep moving in a straight line and fly off into Space. The force of gravity continuously changes this direction of motion, making objects move in circles around Earth's rotation axis. On the equator, everything moves to the east at 465 meters per second, or 1000 miles per hour.
Red arrows show the direction and magnitude of the centrifugal effect. On the equator, it is large and straight up. Near the poles, it is small and nearly horizontal.
Vector addition of the blue and red arrows gives the net result of gravity plus centrifugal effect. This is shown by the green arrows, which represent the net apparent force of gravity and the direction of local "down". Weaker downward gravitational force at the equator plus relatively strong upward centrifugal effect results in a net apparent force of gravity 1/2 of 1% less than it is at the poles.
If you weighed 200 pounds at the poles, you would weigh 199 pounds at the equator.
Between the equator and the poles, the direction of "down" is shifted slightly away from Earth's center, toward the equator. Adding to this small shift caused by centrifugal effect is an even smaller shift caused by the gravitational pull of the equatorial bulge.
Both shifts are in the same direction (toward the equator), and both are largest near the 45-degree latitudes, halfway between the equator and poles. There, the difference between "down" and the direction to Earth's center is 0.00 degree. The part of a perfectly level floor nearest the equator is farthest from Earth's center.
Answer:
Gravity is strongest at the poles because they are closest to the center of mass. This difference is enhanced by the increasing density toward the center. Centrifugal effect is caused by inertia: An object in motion keeps moving at the same speed in the same direction unless a force acts on it.