Solved cryptogram
Earth is not quite a sphere. It bulges at the equator, so you weigh a little less standing there.
Earth Science Facts, sourced to NASA.
What it means
Spinning flattens a planet, and Earth is about forty three kilometers wider through the equator than from pole to pole. Two things follow. You stand farther from the center at the equator, which weakens gravity slightly, and the spin itself throws you outward a touch. Together they make a person around half a percent lighter on a scale in Ecuador than at the North Pole.
The claim comes from NASA, and the page it comes from was read on 2026-08-27 to confirm it still says this.
This is not the kind of claim that goes out of date, which is why it was set as a puzzle rather than a fact with a shelf life.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 76 letters over 18 different ones, graded medium.
- SourceNASA
- CollectionEarth Science Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length76 letters, 18 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 75 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 72 letters
- NOAAhard, 73 letters
- NOAAmedium, 74 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
- U.S. Geological Surveymedium, 71 letters
- NASAmedium, 75 letters
- NASAmedium, 82 letters
- NOAAmedium, 75 letters