Quizzes & Puzzles8 mins ago
What If The Gravity At The Center Of Earth Becomes Infinity?
the gravity at the center of Earth is zero, what will happen if this gravity becomes infinity?
Answers
Yes, gravity at the centre of the Earth is zero. Strictly speaking this is only true if there were no other stars and planets in the Universe but what's meant is that the force due to Earth specifically cancels at the centre (as everything is pulling you equally in all directions, leading to no force overall). If it suddenly became "infinity", that can occur...
16:13 Thu 07th Dec 2017
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Gravity is nothing to do with orbit. All objects attract each other with a force proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of their distance apart. The gravity on the earth's surface is due to the sum of the mass of all the particles in the earth acting as if they are all at the centre. As you descend into the earth there is less mass "below" you pulling you down, so the attraction you feel is less. Once you get to the centre of the earth there is no matter to pull you down, so the attraction will be zero. It is impossible to have infinite gravity at the centre of the earth as there is no mass to pull you down.
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Yes, the sun and earth attract each other because of gravity. If the earth were stationary with respect to the sun it would just fall into it. The earth is trying to travel past the sun, but gravity pulls them together and results in the earth orbiting the sun. If the earth were travelling more slowly through space it would steadily spiral down into the sun. If it were travelling any faster it would just be deflected and head off into space in a changed direction.
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Yes, gravity at the centre of the Earth is zero. Strictly speaking this is only true if there were no other stars and planets in the Universe but what's meant is that the force due to Earth specifically cancels at the centre (as everything is pulling you equally in all directions, leading to no force overall).
If it suddenly became "infinity", that can occur only if there were a literal object of zero size at the centre of the Earth, and would only be meaningful if you were also an object of zero size sitting right on top of it, so that there was exactly no distance between you and it.
This is not really meaningful physically. But if we scale things up very slightly, and allow for a very large, small and dense object sitting at the centre of the Earth, and allowed yourself to get closer and closer to it, then -- well, then congratulations, you've just discovered Black Holes.
Even then, the force at the centre of a Black Hole would still be zero, although at that point it's not clear what the question even means because space and time at the centre of a Black Hole are so messed up as to be meaningless.
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You can also show that the gravitational force everywhere inside a spherical "shell" is zero.
If it suddenly became "infinity", that can occur only if there were a literal object of zero size at the centre of the Earth, and would only be meaningful if you were also an object of zero size sitting right on top of it, so that there was exactly no distance between you and it.
This is not really meaningful physically. But if we scale things up very slightly, and allow for a very large, small and dense object sitting at the centre of the Earth, and allowed yourself to get closer and closer to it, then -- well, then congratulations, you've just discovered Black Holes.
Even then, the force at the centre of a Black Hole would still be zero, although at that point it's not clear what the question even means because space and time at the centre of a Black Hole are so messed up as to be meaningless.
* * * * * * * * * *
You can also show that the gravitational force everywhere inside a spherical "shell" is zero.
Your teacher was probably trying to make you think; that's the way you understand things better and helps you to sort out real-life problems when they crop up. Working in science involves using the rules you've learned to push forward the boundaries of science and, for that, you need to really understand what's going on.
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