I just don’t get it. I understand what gravity is, but can’t make sense of how they map it and further how an area in the Indian Ocean has lower gravity compared to the rest of the earth?
I just don’t get it. I understand what gravity is, but can’t make sense of how they map it and further how an area in the Indian Ocean has lower gravity compared to the rest of the earth?
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So maybe you’ve heard the term “sea level” before. That’s what the geoid is. It’s a calculation of where sea level would be even in places where there’s land.
Now the thing about the earth is that it isn’t perfectly the same density everywhere. And in places where there’s less density, there’s less gravity. And so the sea level is not going to be the same there. The higher gravity that surrounds that place is going to pull the water away from that area, making the sea level, and the geoid, lower.