Gunner wrote:
On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 13:48:44 -0600, Jon Elson
wrote:


And, the cause of the anomaly is obvious! The plumb lines were being
attracted to the walls of the shaft.


They checked for that IRRC.
They may have THOUGHT they corrected for it, but it is actually a pretty
tough calculation, I believe. If they corrected for ONLY the
gravitational effect on the weight, and ignored the wire, that might be
enough to do it. Anyway, I'm pretty well convinced that the earth is
actually round, and not hollow, therefore the plumb lines SHOULD hang
such that the bottom end IS closer together, if such effects as Coriolis
and the test being conducted in a giant hole were not screwing things up.

With decent measuring gear, this test could probably be conducted in
a cargo container (to eliminate drafts), thereby removing the screwy
effects of doing it in a hole with massive amounts of earth on all sides.

Jon