• Question: Can anyone change the planet's gravity like in cartoons??????

    Asked by nuha to Mark, Katharine, Jony, Ben on 23 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Mark Basham

      Mark Basham answered on 23 Nov 2011:

      hi nuha,

      Sorry but this isn’t possible, because the earth’s gravity is all down to the mass of the earth, which isn’t changing.

      You can chance the forces you feel though, like when your on a roller coaster, but the actual force of gravity on you is pretty constant.

    • Photo: Ben Still

      Ben Still answered on 23 Nov 2011:

      Unless you blow the planet apart then no, the Earth has a fixed mass and therefore gravity.

      Interestingly though gravity is stronger at the Equator than at higher latitudes. This is because the Earth is not perfectly round but instead a squashed ball, fatter in the middle so that there is more mass underneath your feet than at higher latitudes.

    • Photo: Jony Hudson

      Jony Hudson answered on 23 Nov 2011:

      Afraid not, but it would be fun if you could. Would be the best fairground ride ever!

      There’s a plane that can temporarily make zero-gravity conditions by diving in a very specific path. They use it to test out things that have to go in to space and to train astronauts, because it’s much cheaper than a space flight. They also use it for filming the space scenes in some movies. Its nickname is the “vomit comet” because it tends to make people be sick – like a rollercoaster but much, much worse!!

      You can read about it here:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced_Gravity_Aircraft

      And a crazy video of people doing some not-very-serious training in it:

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