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Does everyone learn the same gravity in school or is it different everywhere? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/askscience

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So, I learned in physics class at school in the UK that the value of acceleration due to gravity is a constant called g and that it was 9.81m/s^2. I knew that this value is not a true constant as it is affected by terrain and location. However I didn't know that it can be so significantly different as to be 9.776 m/s^2 in Kuala Lumpur for example. I'm wondering if a different value is told to children in school that is locally relevant for them? Or do we all use the value I learned?

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[–] bouh 17 points 11 months ago

Well, g is not a real constant, it depends mostly on altitude. The true constant is G. g=9.8 is usually more than enough for your calculations, to the point we often round it to 10 for simplicity, or you remove it completely is the mass is too low. But actual numbers is only the very last step usually. The calculations will be made with letters. The value you use at the end for g depends on the precision you need, so it depends on the precision of the other parameters.