Where in the world will I weigh least?

Where in the world will I weigh least?

Author: BBC World Service March 29, 2025 Duration: 26:29

Host Anand Jagatia tackles gravity - a fundamental force of the universe yet also an everyday mystery that has baffled several listeners. Can you outrun it? Or at least use it to get fitter? If it varies, does that mean that you weigh less, depending on where on earth you stand? And if it’s the force of attraction between any objects with mass, are you technically more attractive after eating a massive cake?

Professor Claudia de Rham from Imperial College London explains the basics of gravity, while we discover the best place on earth to weight ourselves, with Professor Paddy Regan from Surrey University and NPL Fellow in Nuclear and Radiation Science and Metrology.

Anand takes a very fast spin on a special chair to experience extra gravity, thanks to Professor Floris Wuyts from the University of Antwerp, Kings College London and Minister of Science of Asgardia.

And finally, we talk to an expert lined up at the other end of a hypothetical hole through the earth: Professor Richard Easther from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. What would happen if we fell straight through the earth?

CrowdScience finds gravity a force to be reckoned with.

Presenter: Anand Jagatia Producer: Marnie Chesterton Editor: Cathy Edwards Production Co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano and Jana Bennett-Holesworth Studio Manager: Jackie Margerum and Duncan Hannant Photo: Anand Jagatia experiencing extra g-force


Curiosity drives discovery, and CrowdScience from the BBC World Service is built entirely on that principle. Each episode begins not with a scripted lesson, but with a question sent in by a listener from anywhere in the world. These aren't simple queries with easy answers; they are the wonderfully complex, often quirky puzzles about everyday phenomena and cosmic mysteries that make us all stop and wonder. What does silence sound like? Could we ever photosynthesize like plants? How does a crowd's mood physically spread? The team then embarks on a genuine investigative journey, tracking down the specialists at the very edge of our understanding-neuroscientists, ecologists, physicists, and engineers-to piece together credible, compelling answers. Listening to this podcast feels like having a direct line to the labs and field sites where knowledge is being created. The conversations are deep yet accessible, transforming abstract concepts into relatable stories. It’s a collective exploration where listener curiosity sets the agenda, making each episode a unique and democratic look at the machinery of our world and beyond. You become part of a global community pondering life, Earth, and the universe, one thoughtful question at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

CrowdScience
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