Altitude and it's affect on body weight scale reading

Triathlon Forum
1

Does altitude have an effect on the scale readings when you weigh yourself? Better explained is this experiment: If you weigh yourself at sea level and then get on a plane and travel to altitude (let’s pick Denver at 5,000 feet) and then weigh yourself at altitude, do you weigh less or more?

Why I’m asking is that I tried this and at altitude I weighed less than compared to sea level (and didn’t eat a substantial amount that would account for the weight gain).

2

Altitude, actually distance from the Earth’s center, will effect the weight you see on a scale. You weighing less at a relatively higher altitude is normal and expected.

This link shows a good example;
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/1998-08/901745222.Ph.r.html

-tim

3

Thanks for the response. The weight difference at sea level and altitude is neglible and not as big as I thought. Phew, thanks again!

**870 feet above sea level and you weigh 110.22lbs **

7,500 feet above sea level and you weight 110.15 lbs

4

g = (Gm1m2)/r^2

Therefore, the further you are from the center of the earth (greater altitude), the smaller the acceleration due to gravity (g). The smaller g, the less weight that appears on the scale.

J.C

5

Thanks for the response. The weight difference at sea level and altitude is neglible and not as big as I thought. Phew, thanks again!

**870 feet above sea level and you weigh 110.22lbs **

7,500 feet above sea level and you weight 110.15 lbs
Troll!

You just wanted to tell everyone how fit you are.

The earth’s radius at sea level is approximately 21.4 million feet. If you add 7500, that’s not going to make a measurable (on practically any scale) difference in weight due to change in gravity. You would lose more water weight breathing the dry/thin air on the trip up than you would otherwise.

Maybe the problem is it’s a super low tide, with the earth, moon, and sun lined up perpendicular to you. :wink:

6

I was under the impression it was more, something like 1lbs for each 1000ft of altitude. Something to do with O2 pressure?!

7

mersearing weigth has noting to do with pressure of the atmosphere.

since pressure varies, and gravetation acceleration doesn’t. (well of course it does vary a small bit depending where you are on earth (at the equitor 9.8144 m/s², at the poles it is 9.8322 m/s²) and that difference is 21 km, everst is’nt going to make a huge difference.