As you go deeper into a well, what happens to your weight?

Weight is the force with which a body is attracted towards the Earth due to gravity. It depends on the gravitational acceleration (g) at a particular location. As you go deeper into a well, the value of gravitational acceleration slightly decreases because the effective mass of Earth beneath you reduces.

This phenomenon occurs because only the portion of Earth beneath your current depth contributes to gravitational attraction, while the mass above cancels out due to shell theorem. According to this theorem, a uniform spherical shell of mass exerts no net gravitational force on objects inside it. Therefore, as you descend, less mass is effectively attracting you, leading to a slight decrease in weight.

The decrease is very small and usually imperceptible for ordinary wells, but it is measurable in physics experiments. This is why weight slightly decreases as you go deeper.

It is important to note that weight is different from mass. Your mass remains constant regardless of location, but weight depends on local gravity. The deeper you go, the smaller the gravitational pull, hence smaller weight. Conversely, if you go higher above Earth’s surface, weight also decreases due to reduced gravity.

This concept is fundamental in classical mechanics and gravitation. Understanding weight variation helps explain natural phenomena like buoyancy, pressure inside Earth, and satellite mechanics. It also demonstrates how gravitational force depends not just on mass but also on distance from the Earth’s center.

In summary, when you go deeper into a well, your weight slightly decreases due to reduced gravitational attraction from the Earth below and cancellation from the mass above, illustrating a practical application of Newtonian gravity and the shell theorem.