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Team Lidenbrock provided us the information more than 150 years ago
Consider all material, starting from the surface of South Africa to exactly one mile deep, and think of gravity. This large section of landmass will feel the gravitational pull from the entire Earth, pulling it toward the center of our planet.
With the next one-mile deep mass, the entire planet is also pulling on this section of mass, except for the one-mile of landmass found right above it. That section, right below the surface, will pull on the second one-mile mass beneath it in the opposite direction compared to the rest of the planet.
Dive deeper and take a look at a midsection of Earth, for instance, a one-mile thick mass located exactly between Pretoria and the center of the planet. This section of mass will still be pulled toward the center of the planet by the plurality of Earth’s mass, but quite a lot of mass is then also pulling it in the opposite and into other directions.
The deeper we move into Earth, the more diverse the gravitational pull on any particular section becomes.
The shape of South Africa is maintained throughout in this mental exercise, but notice how the shape of the country will have become smaller the deeper we moved into the planet. That size is a good indicator of how much…
