Matthew Smith wrote:
Quoth Bruce Griffiths at 2010-03-06 07:58...
Yes it does due to the variation of gravitational attraction between the
object and the Earth with height above the ground.
However this classical effect is very small and probably virtually
impossible to measure.
So, if the mass is closer to the centre of the planet, it weighs more?
Never really considered this before, but fascinating nonetheless.
Wonder if this would affect the moment of a pendulum.
For a spherical Earth with a spherically symmetric mass distribution the
vertical gradient is around -0.3ppm/m.
For the real Earth with the situation is somewhat more complex:
http://gge.unb.ca/Personnel/Vanicek/MeanVerticalGradient.pdf
The period of a pendulum will vary with its height above the terrain.
Bruce
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