The country with the world's lowest gravity where visitors 'get lighter'
A new scientific study found that a mountainous region has lower gravity than anywhere else on Earth.
Scientists have discovered the exact point where gravity is weakest on Earth, leaving people feeling "lighter". After studying around 80% of the Earth's mass, scientists from Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, found the most intense - and weakest - points of gravitational pull.
If Earth were perfectly round it might be a different story, but with its less-than-perfect spherical shape, gravity varies slightly in some regions - especially ones with high altitudes near the equator. As the earth rotates, areas further from the planet's centre of mass are less affected, which similarly happens at the highest peaks on the planet, like Mount Everest.
Generally, it's estimated that Earth's gravitational acceleration - the 'force' that gravity pulls you towards the centre of the planet - is 9.8 m/s².
However, scientists found that Nevado Huascarán in Peru had the lowest gravitational acceleration on Earth, at 9.7639 m/s².
This means that those who reach the summit experience a decrease in their weight, according to the study led by Christian Hirt, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
At 6,768 metres above sea level, Peru's highest peak has a combination of factors contributing to its lower gravity, being near the equatorial line and the tallest mountain at these latitudes, as well as a series of "local anomalies".
Don't miss: Scientists breakthrough as mystery over separation of huge continents solved
Don't miss: Hypersonic weapon breakthrough as UK defence chief hails ‘milestone moment'
Don't miss: World's deepest cave bigger than 7 Eiffel Towers - took 100 men to retrieve body
A site on the surface of the Arctic Ocean was found to have the maximum value of gravitational force at 9.8337 m/s², so if a person travelled from there to Huascarán's summit, they would see a reduction in their body weight by approximately 1 percent.
People feel lighter or heavier due to the difference in their body mass (kg) versus their body weight, which is measured in Newtons (N).
An adult with a mass of 70 kg would go from weighing 688 N to 683 N.
The study covered 80 percent of the planet's continental masses, by combining satellite topographic data to map gravity changes from the equatorial line to latitudes 60° north and 60° south.
