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Gravity is one of the most important forces in the universe, and it plays a major role in our lives, even if the average person almost never really gives it much thought.
We don’t think much about it because it impacts us all the same at all times, unless we are one of the very few people who travel to space.
This remarkable consistency is one of the reasons why roadside ‘Mystery Spots’ that claim to exist where gravity doesn’t function normally attract so many visitors. People want to see something that is so far outside their normal experience that they are drawn in.
While these silly tourist traps can actually be fun, they rely on optical illusions or other tricks to make it look or feel like gravity isn’t working right in that spot. If you’re into that type of thing, they can be a fun way to kill an hour and stretch your legs.
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If you are looking for a place on Earth where gravity is actually weaker than anywhere else, however, you won’t find it by pulling off a busy highway.
The effects of gravity are determined by the mass of objects and their distance. Since we humans are pretty small and the Earth is quite big, we can’t tell when gravity is stronger or weaker. Its effects do shift ever so slightly based on what is deep under our feet and centrifugal forces (among other factors).
If you are at the North Pole, for example, gravity will be stronger than if you are at the equator. This is because the spin of the Earth is fastest at the Equator, which means the centrifugal force is working to throw you off the Earth while Gravity is holding you down.
Since we don’t see people flying off into space when they visit the equator, it is clear that gravity always wins that battle.
The difference in how much gravity you would feel from the North Pole to the equator is quite small, and nobody would really notice it. NASA, however, has a way to measure gravity with extreme precision, and they have done just that to find out where on Earth has the least amount of gravity.
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mapped the gravitational field of the Earth using satellites that orbit the Earth 220 kilometers (137 miles) away from each other. NASA explains how this works:
“GRACE measured gravity by relating it to the distance between the two satellites. When there was an increase in gravity ahead of the pair, the front satellite sped up and the distance between the pair increased.
When the increased gravity was between the pair, their distance decreased; the opposite occurred when there was decreased gravity ahead of, or between, the satellite pair.”
Needless to say, there is a lot of science and math that goes into their calculations, but in the end, this allows researchers to determine where gravity is strongest and weakest on Earth.
So, if you want to experience the least amount of gravity you can while still on Earth, you’ll need to visit the top of Mount Nevado Huascaran, which is located in Peru.
The height of the mountain and the local anomalies with how dense the Earth is below work out so that you will indeed be lighter at this spot than anywhere else on Earth.
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Just make sure to bring a very sensitive scale, because the difference is such a small fraction of a percent that you still wouldn’t notice.
The moral of this story is that if you’re looking for a way to lose weight, an improved diet and exercise are going to be far more effective than traveling to Peru to find the place where the gravitational pull on your body will be the lowest.
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