My family members say you’re walking downhill from the north pole to the equator, and uphill going the opposite way, but that doesn’t make sense, because you’re still walking along an arc on the sphere. I’ve stared and stared and stared at this baseball in my hand, but can’t figure it out.
In: Physics
It’s not hard if you first actually define what “up” and “down” mean. Down means toward the center of gravity, or the middle of the earth in this case, and up means away from it. Assuming a perfectly smooth, round surface like a ball (which the actually Earth isn’t. It’s rather lumpy and mishappen) you would not going uphill or downhill since you won’t be getting any closer to the center of the Earth or farther away.
If it helps, I will add that the reason going up a hill take extra work is that we are literally fighting against gravity, pushing to get away from the middle of the earth. The steep the hill, the faster we are trying to move away and the hard it is. Going downhill, however, gravity is pulling is down which is why is is so easy. Gravity is trying to pull us closer to the center of the Earth anyway, so we dont’ have to work at is so hard ourselves.
But as I said, you are doing neither in your scenario.
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