At which of the following place, weight of an object is maximum?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → At poles
Weight is the force of gravity on an object, \(W=mg\). The mass \(m\) stays the same everywhere, so the weight changes only with \(g\), the acceleration due to gravity at that place.
The Earth is slightly flattened at the poles, so a point on a pole is about 21 km nearer the centre of the Earth than a point on the equator, and gravity there is stronger.
The Earth's spin has no outward effect at the poles, while at the equator it reduces the effective pull the most.
Both effects make \(g\) the largest at the poles (about 9.83 m/s2) and the smallest at the equator (about 9.78 m/s2), so an object weighs the most at the poles. The tropics of Cancer and Capricorn lie between the two, so the weight there is in between.