Does the mass of a human body produce a measurable gravitational field?

Question

Lets say there was a 250 pound man and a 150 pound man, would they both have a gravitational field around them and would the heavier man have a stronger gravitational field than the little guy?

Answer 1

Well, the answer is yes, they'd both have their own, unique gravitational fields;  "measurable" is the hard part - both the weights aren't very much, but given instruments sensitive enough, yes.  

One of the problems with this would be their muscles are far stronger than the weak gravitational fields they'd produce, but if you could keep them still long enough, and in close enough proximity to each other, both would 'fall' toward each other provided there were no other forces involved.  

Think about it - when you jump off the ground, you 'push' the Earth a little away from you, but the Earth (weighing far more) pushes back.  The gravity of both you and the Earth pulls the two of you back, so the net effect of your jump is zero; but while you were 'off the Earth', it was being pulled back exactly as much as you pushed it away when you jumped.  

Answer 2

Do not call it a field. The gravity of  earth is one of the gravities that makes the vacuum of space. The gravity of all the solar bodies help.  

Answer 3

Every object with mass also produces a corresponding amount of gravity. Because gravity is a very week force, we have no instruments capable to detect it. We can calculate it though.

We have to multiple the mass by the universal gravitational constant, which is 6.6726 x 10^-11.

Because the gravitational constant is metric, we have to change the pounds into kg by multiplying it by 2.2.

250 lbs x 2.2 = 550 kg

150 x 2.2 = 330 kg

Now we need to multiply those values by .000000000066726 to find the gravitational pull in newtons.

550 x .000000000066726 = .0000000366993 N

330 x .000000000066726 = .00000002201958 N

As you can see, the 150 lb man has less mass, and thus less gravity than the 250 lb man.

Answer 4

For starters, you wouldn't measure a field.  You would detect a field by measuring forces.

In that case, this can be a simple physics question, using the force of gravity between the two men as an example.  The formula is as follows (in Metric):

F = G (m1x m2 / r²)

Notice that as m1 or m2 goes up, the force goes up.  That means that the more massive (heavier) each person is, the more force is generated.  The more massive person has more gravitational influence than the less massive person.

First, let's convert the masses from pounds to kg.

1 kg weighs about 2.2 pounds.  Therefore:

250 pounds = about 114 kg

150 pounds = about 68 kg

The centers of mass for each person is around the middle of the body, near the belly button, plus or minus.  A reasonable distance between their centers of mass is around 2 feet.  In meters, that is about 0.6 m.

G (the gravitational constant) is around 6.67 x 10^-11 (m^3 / kg s²)

Multiplying those together reveals:

F = G (m1x m2 / r²)

= 6.67e-11 x 114 x 68 / (0.6²)

= 1.436 e-6 Newtons = 0.000001436 Newtons

In pounds, that is about 3.23e-7 pounds = 0.000000323 pounds.

If you can measure that, then the answer is yes.  Otherwise, no.

Update: Cavendish was able to measure much smaller amounts of gravitational attraction back in 1798, as many others answering this question have noted.

Answer 5

Every mass has gravity! And yes the heavier guy has has a stronger gravitational pull but gravity is a very very weak force, for example it takes something as big as the Earth to accelerate an object at 9.8 m/s/s.

Answer 6

every object in the universe attracts every other object with the force directly proportional to the product of masses of the objects and inversely proportional to the square of distance between them.

i think the 250 pound guy and 150 pound guys can be considered as objects... so the answer is yes.

Answer 7

Yes. A modern Cavendish balance is sensitive enough to detect the gravity of a  human body.

Answer 8

Technically yes but this would only be observable in space.  The force of gravity between the two men, assuming they're isolated from any other gravitational field would be....

= G x [(150lb x 250lb)/r^2)]

G=newtons gravitational constant

r=distance between the two men.

Answer 9

Yes, it is absolutely measurable, and you don't have to go to space. If we were unable to measure gravitational forces of things on Earth, then we would have no possible way of determining the constant G. Since G is determined, we must have measured it by measuring the gravitational forces of known masses separated by known distances.

The experiment, performed in many freshman physics labs, is called the Cavendish balance, after the scientist who first performed it in 1798. The bodies in that experiment are typically only a few pounds. You don't need 150 pound masses.

Answer 10

All objects with mass exert a gravitational field, however, we don't posses instruments powerful enough to detect the incredibly weak field created by masses that small.

Even the field created by the Earth can be easily overcome with the force exerted by a simple refrigerator magnet. A person can overcome this force with the effort of a single push up.

Gravity is really, really, weak, especially so for very small objects such as individual people.