The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1903-04-10
WHAT is WEIGHT7
A simple Lesson In Science That
Boys and Girls Can Understand.


Boys and Girls Can Understand
The common notion of weight is that
it is the heaviness of body, but while
we have clear perception of what
that means it does not fully explain
the question. Perhaps it might be well
70 get right down to the bottom of the
matter, which we can do in few
words
When we drop ball, it falls to the
earth, and we say that it fails because
of its weight. That is partly but not
wholly true. The distinction is fine
one. but it must be made to make us
thoroughly understand the point. The
ball falls because it is attracted to the
earth by gravitation, force that per.
vades the universe. The tendency of a
body to approach the earths surface is
called gravity Now, when body is
held up or prevented from following
the impulse of gravity it presses OH
whatever holds or supports it more or
less strongly. according to the force
with which it is attracted. This down
ward pressure of resistance to gravity
is what is known as weight 1.-The meas
ure of the force with which body is
drawn toward the earth.
IT, therefore, the earth contained
twice as much matter as It now con-
tains it would have twice rs great an
attraction for body. and rs the body
would have twice as mucL gravity to
pncict in 70 In
much weight
The weight of a body is greatest of
course at the surface of the earth. and
1T diminishes by regular law in going
above the surface and descending be-
low it. A body that weighs 1000
pounds at the surface would weigh
only $50 pounds at a distance of 1000
miles below the surface. All distance
of 1000 miles below it would weigh
500 pounds. At a distance of 5000
miles below it would weigh $50
pounds, and at the center, 1000 miles
below, it would weigh nothing.
Ascending from the surface the rule
Is different-the weight diminishes as
the square of the distance from the
center increases. An object that weighs
1000 pounds at the surface, for exam
pie, will weigh only $50 pounds 1000
miles above the surface, which is 5000
miles above the center, or, in other
words, twice the surface distance.
At three times the surface distance il
will weigh one-ninth the surface
weight, at four times the surface dis
lance one-sixteenth the surface weight
and at five times the surface distance
one-twenty-fft the surface weight.
At distance of 10000 miles above
the center of the earth, therefore. an
object that weighs 1000 pounds at the
surface will weigh only forty pounds
If elevated to a height of 100000 miles,
the distance of the moon from the
earth, it would weigh less than five
ounces.
But an object does not weigh the
same at all points of the earth's sur
face. Suppose we find an object at
the poles that weighs 1000 pounds and
carry it to the equator. There we
should find that it weighed only 900
pOuHuS.
There are two reasons for this. First,
the equatorial diameter is about TWEEN
ty-siX and half miles greater than
the polar diameter, and the object
would therefore be farther from the
center and subject to less attraction
Then the centrifugal force is greater
at the equator, and this tends to coun-
teract the downward attraction, thus
making the weight less
The scientists tell us that if the
earth rotated on its axis seventeen
times faster than it does now the cen
trifugal force at the equator would
wholly counterfeit gravity, and objects
would have no weight, and a still
greater increase of rotation would re-
suit in everything being thrown off the
surface into space