27 Sep '05 04:02>
This one came to me, I swear, in a dream. Okay, so I was taking some extra-strength cough medicine at the time, but still...
In my dream I saw a wet volleyball spinning so fast that droplets of water were being flung off in every direction. Waking up, I thought, gee, it's lucky the earth isn't spinning fast enough to fling us off like that water. But then I thought, wait a minute, I wonder if the spin of the earth, while not strong enough to eject me from the planet, still does have some (measurable?) effect on my attraction to said planet--that is, my weight? It seems to me it must.
Furthermore, I would guess that people at the equator, since they are experiencing the maximum acceleration, have the biggest differences between their apparent and actual weights; and the only completely accurate scales would be those on the north & south poles, and then, of course, you'd have to deduct for your parka. Can anyone say if this is so? Do I actually weigh more even than my scales currently indicate? And here I thought they were being cruelly honest already!
In my dream I saw a wet volleyball spinning so fast that droplets of water were being flung off in every direction. Waking up, I thought, gee, it's lucky the earth isn't spinning fast enough to fling us off like that water. But then I thought, wait a minute, I wonder if the spin of the earth, while not strong enough to eject me from the planet, still does have some (measurable?) effect on my attraction to said planet--that is, my weight? It seems to me it must.
Furthermore, I would guess that people at the equator, since they are experiencing the maximum acceleration, have the biggest differences between their apparent and actual weights; and the only completely accurate scales would be those on the north & south poles, and then, of course, you'd have to deduct for your parka. Can anyone say if this is so? Do I actually weigh more even than my scales currently indicate? And here I thought they were being cruelly honest already!