Donald HobernThe same day I read about Google's expanded enthusiasm for AI with everything, here is their featured snippet at top of search for "gravity vs altitude".
Bring on the Idiocracy!
Jonathan👣🚲@dhobern It’s quoting a wrong answer on Quora (by Anil Agnihotri) https://www.quora.com/Is-gravity-less-at-altitude which itself is based on a list of misconceptions on https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/science/continuum/Pages/gravity.aspx . We’re losing it.
Is gravity less at altitude?
Answer (1 of 12): The short answer? Yes, it is! The longer answer? Eh, not really. Here, I’ll show you what I mean. The force due to gravity on an object, say an apple, is given by Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation: F = \frac{G M_{earth} m_{apple}}{r^2} where F is the force due to grav...
Based on my experience here in Adelaide today, it's alternating between answers based on two different pages.
One is the Education Victoria what-students-think page:
The other is a maths education site:
https://byjus.com/question-answer/how-does-gravity-decreases-with-increase-in-altitude/
@dhobern That other article is confused and misleading at best. Wow.
At this point, just go straight to Wikipedia. For all the caveats that apply, it’s so much better than this nonsense. Not as if the general public is going to find anything better. This is problematic.