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Where in the world will I weigh least?

What is gravity? Why does it vary around the earth? And if you hang out in the right place, will you weigh less? Anand Jagatia finds it a force to be reckoned with.

Host Anand Jagatia tackles gravity - a fundamental force of the universe yet also an everyday mystery that has baffled several listeners. Can you outrun it? Or at least use it to get fitter? If it varies, does that mean that you weigh less, depending on where on earth you stand? And if it’s the force of attraction between any objects with mass, are you technically more attractive after eating a massive cake?

Professor Claudia de Rham from Imperial College London explains the basics of gravity, while we discover the best place on earth to weight ourselves, with Professor Paddy Regan from Surrey University and NPL Fellow in Nuclear and Radiation Science and Metrology.

Anand takes a very fast spin on a special chair to experience extra gravity, thanks to Professor Floris Wuyts from the University of Antwerp, Kings College London and Minister of Science of Asgardia.

And finally, we talk to an expert lined up at the other end of a hypothetical hole through the earth: Professor Richard Easther from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. What would happen if we fell straight through the earth?

CrowdScience finds gravity a force to be reckoned with.

Presenter: Anand Jagatia
Producer: Marnie Chesterton
Editor: Cathy Edwards
Production Co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano and Jana Bennett-Holesworth
Studio Manager: Jackie Margerum and Duncan Hannant

Photo: Anand Jagatia experiencing extra g-force

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26 minutes

Last on

Mon 31 Mar 2025 12:32GMT

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  • Fri 28 Mar 2025 20:32GMT
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  • Mon 31 Mar 2025 12:32GMT

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