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Garden Gnome Tests Earth's Gravity

Posted by samzenpus on from the he's-not-heavy dept.

sciencehabit writes "Researchers have long hypothesized that objects weigh less at Earth's equator because the planet's spin and shape lessen gravity's pull there versus at the poles. Satellite accelerometers have confirmed this, but a digital scale manufacturer decided to test things the old-fashioned way. Enter the Kern garden gnome. When placed on a scale at the South Pole, the intrepid ornament weighed 309.82 grams versus 307.86 grams at the equator, a difference of 0.6%."

17 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. This is why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I buy my drugs at the North pole.

    1. Re:This is why by PacoCheezdom · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But if you bought them at the equator, you'd get a .6% discount! It's pay by weight, you know.

    2. Re:This is why by NicknameAvailable · · Score: 4, Funny

      But if you bought them at the equator, you'd get a .6% discount! It's pay by weight, you know.

      He's clearly high.

    3. Re:This is why by stoofa · · Score: 3, Funny

      Maybe he has so many drugs in his system that he's developed a paranoid fear of gnomes and heard rumours they were gathering on the equator.

    4. Re:This is why by shugah · · Score: 3, Funny

      I make it a rule; never buy drugs from gnomes.

      --
      If you aren't part of the solution, then there is good money to be made prolonging the problem
  2. Garden Gnome Tests Earth's Gravity? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    So it has come to this.

    1. Re:Garden Gnome Tests Earth's Gravity? by NicknameAvailable · · Score: 5, Funny

      http://xkcd.com/1022/

  3. Next to the standard kilogram by buchner.johannes · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Next to the standard kilogram, there will be a standard garden gnome.

    0.6% is not a small number. I'm looking forward to discussing the next international health survey and asking "Did you normalize your weights for gravitational variance?"

    --
    NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
  4. Makes sense by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

    I know that, whenever I see a garden gnome, I feel a powerful urge to use it to test gravity. Especially if there's a large asphalt or cement driveway nearby.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  5. Wrong units... by MrKevvy · · Score: 5, Informative

    "When placed on a scale at the South Pole, the intrepid ornament weighed 309.82 grams versus 307.86 grams at the equator..."

    The grams is a unit of mass, which is invariant depending on gravity. The metric unit of weight is the kilopond.

    --
    -- Insert witty one-liner here. --
    1. Re:Wrong units... by PRMan · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's why we in the US still use pounds. That way, it's always accurate.

      --
      Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
    2. Re:Wrong units... by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

      True. But in fact, these scales appear to measure things in kgf and cut off the f, giving 0.30982 kgf vs. 0.30786 kgf.

      Random related anecdote: I used to work for an e-tailer, and trade-legal scales used for calculating postage for goods to be shipped to a customer have to have buttons to calibrate for the gravity at any given latitude. In dimensional terms, this acts as a conversion factor from kgf to kg.

    3. Re:Wrong units... by suomynonAyletamitlU · · Score: 4, Informative

      Million-dolar spacecraft have been lost for less. Units matter.

      I don't know why a company that made scales would make that particular mistake, but then, if NASA can do it, who am I to judge.

    4. Re:Wrong units... by snookums · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I once saw an ad for a digital bathroom scale that claimed it "never needs calibrating" and was "accurate to 0.1%". I immediately called bullshit* on this in my head and am glad to know that I was justified in doing so.

      * Note that this was in Australia where we actually measure our mass in kg, rather than our weight in lb. It may well have been that accurate as a weighing machine, but not as a "massing" machine.

      --
      Be careful. People in masks cannot be trusted.
  6. Hmm... by xstonedogx · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does it also test the Earth's travelocity?

    (I'm so, so sorry. I'm a sick man. I need help.)

  7. Wrong units by mmontour · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's sometimes an acceptable shorthand to express a weight in grams, but not when that's the whole point of the story. The _mass_ in grams is (hopefully) not changing. The _weight_ in newtons (or any other dimensionally-correct unit you prefer) is what's changing.

    If you're using a device that measures weight and reports it in grams, then you need to re-calibrate it against a known reference mass at each new location.

    p.s. don't forget about buoyancy. Accurate measurements need to be done in a vacuum chamber.

  8. Earth != sphere by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative

    The earth's shape is a geoid, which is flattened compared to a sphere. Because the distance from center of mass to the surface is smaller at the poles than at the equator, gravity is stronger at the poles, and the weight of an equal mass is greater.