The eotvos is a unit of

acceleration In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by t ...

divided by

distance Distance is a numerical or occasionally qualitative measurement of how far apart objects or points are. In physics or everyday usage, distance may refer to a physical length or an estimation based on other criteria (e.g. "two counties over"). ...

that was used in conjunction with the older

centimetre–gram–second system of units The centimetre–gram–second system of units (abbreviated CGS or cgs) is a variant of the metric system based on the centimetre as the unit of length, the gram as the unit of mass, and the second as the unit of time. All CGS mechanical units ...

(cgs). The eotvos is defined as 10⁻⁹ galileos per

centimetre 330px, Different lengths as in respect to the Electromagnetic spectrum, measured by the Metre and its deriveds scales. The Microwave are in-between 1 meter to 1 millimeter. A centimetre (international spelling) or centimeter (American spellin ...

. The symbol of the eotvos unit is E. In SI units or in cgs units, 1 eotvos = 10⁻⁹ second⁻². The

gravitational gradient Gravity gradiometry is the study and measurement of variations ( anomalies) in the Earth's gravity field. The gravity gradient tensor is the spatial rate of change of gravitational acceleration; as acceleration is a vector quantity, with magnitu ...

of the Earth, that is, the change in the gravitational acceleration vector from one point on the Earth's surface to another, is customarily measured in units of eotvos. The Earth's gravity gradient is dominated by the component due to Earth's near-spherical shape, which results in a vertical tensile gravity gradient of 3,080 E (an elevation increase of 1 m gives a decrease of gravity of about 0.3 mGal), and horizontal compressive gravity gradients of one half that, or 1,540 E. Earth's rotation perturbs this in a direction-dependent manner by about 5 E. Gravity gradient anomalies in mountainous areas can be as large as several hundred eotvos. The eotvos unit is named for the physicist

Loránd Eötvös Baron Loránd Eötvös de Vásárosnamény (or Loránd Eötvös, , '' hu, vásárosnaményi báró Eötvös Loránd Ágoston''; 27 July 1848 – 8 April 1919), also called Baron Roland von Eötvös in English literature, was a Hungarian physicist ...

, who made pioneering studies of the gradient of the Earth's gravitational field.

References

{{Reflist Units of measurement Non-SI metric units