When You Step on a Weighing Scale at Noon, the Earth

question 74

Multiple Choice

When you step on a weighing scale at noon, the Earth pulls you down and the overhead sun pulls you upward. The reason the sun's pull doesn't decrease your weight at noon is because

• A) the weighing scale is calibrated only in Earth weight.
• B) the sun's pull is cancelled by the gravitation of other celestial bodies.
• C) of tidal effects in the "solid" Earth.
• D) you, the scale, and the Earth are freely falling around the sun.
• E) the sun's pull on you is negligibly small.