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this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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It's basic math. You can do the gravitational calculations yourself. Basically any sphere of uniform density is going to exert gravity uniformly. So if you're in the center the pull from the mass on any direction will be counteracted by the pull in the opposite direction. It's one of the basic introduction to physics calculus examples.
Example:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Mechanics/sphshell.html
So to your question about what the zone of negligible gravity would be, you can define negligible gravity, and then figure out how large that zone would be based on the material on the outside of the shell.
Basically the further you get from the exact center of the sphere, you're going to have more gravity from the closer edge pulling you, and less gravity from the further edge offsetting that. So there'll be a gradient of increasing gravity as you get further away from the center
Not quite. If by "edge" you mean the surface of the earth, then the force of gravity from the closer edge will always exactly offset the gravity from the farther edge. So if the earth were hollow, then you would experience zero gravity at any point in the hollow portion.
Of course, the earth is not hollow. And any mass under you (i.e. closer to the center than you are) will not be offset, and all of it will pull you towards the center. As you move further away from the center, more of the earth's mass will be closer to the center than you and therefore the force of gravity will increase.
Nah, there's only one exact center of gravity for a given body of mass. You can't just make a vacuum and have gravity equalizer throughout it.
Yes you can, as long as you are inside a perfectly spherical shell.
From: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Mechanics/sphshell2.html#wtls