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
Gravity always pulls you towards the centre of the Earth. This means that when you’re standing on the North pole you’re being pulled in a totally different direction than someone standing on the equator.
If you were to walk around the entire Earth from pole to pole you wouldn’t walk uphill then downhill, you’d walk along a constant curve but the angle you were being pulled at would constantly change to always pull you “down” so the ground would always seem flat to you. (Obviously this wouldn’t hold true for actual hills & mountains, which you would have to climb and descend, and there would be a lot of ocean for you to “walk” on, but for this example I’m assuming you’re walking exclusively at sea level)
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