Thanks for correcting that!

Doesn’t the first part of your statement imply that there is actually “less” distance between you at the pole and the center of the Earth?

In fact what makes you “heavier” at the pole, due to the “shape” of Earth (if it is bulging around the equator), is the that you are “closer” to the “center of mass” rather than the amount of mass between you and the center of Earth. The amount of mass between you and the center of Earth (assuming the shape is at least “symmetric”) is the same no matter where you are on the surface (if you go underground, all bets are off! 🙂 ). It is always “half” the entire mass. But that, in and of itself does not lead to any conclusion about how much you’ll weight.

But when you are at a pole, you are “closer” to all the particles of mass (of Earth) on average and since gravity decreases with distance, then you weight more.

Also, Earth is not a perfect sphere. North-to-South is a few kilometers less, as its diameter at the equator. Meaning at the poles there is more mass between you and the center of Earth and more distance. All-in-all this also increases your weight at the poles.

I googled one link to offer a reference too;.http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/42-our-solar-system/the-earth/gravity/94-does-your-weight-change-between-the-poles-and-the-equator-intermediate
“Taking into account both of the above effects (centrifugal at equator, and more mass below your feet at the poles), the gravitational acceleration is 9.78 m/s^2 at the equator and 9.83 m/s^2 at the poles, so you weigh about 0.5% more at the poles than at the equator.”

Ok i am nitpicking. But i am thinking of buying gold at the equator, and than sell it from my Northpole shop. I win about 5 grams of gold for each kilo i resell, right? 🙂

Thanks for this and your other million good articles