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Our satellite bind everything from severe sway and minerals to millions of species of hold out thing , and is cover in countless natural and human - made structures .
So how much does all of that weigh ? There ’s no single solution to that question . Just like humans weigh much less on the moon than we do at rest home , Earthdoesn’t have just one weight . Earth ’s weighting depends on the gravitative force perpetrate on it , which means it could count trillions of pounds or nothing at all .
Earth weighs as much as 13 quadrillion pyramid of Khafres at Giza in Egypt.
What scientists have spent centuries determining , however , is Earth ’s mass , which is its resistance to crusade against an hold force . According toNASA , Earth ’s mass is 5.9722×1024 kilograms , or around 13.1 septillion pound sign . This equalize to around 13 quadrillion of Egypt’spyramid of Khafre , which itself matter around 10 billion pounds ( 4.8 billion kilograms ) . The Earth ’s mass fluctuates slightly due to the addition ofspace dustand gasconade leakingout of our ambiance , but these diminutive changes wo n’t affect Earth for billions of years .
Physicists around the public still do n’t agree on the decimals , though , and getting to that grand amount has been no sluttish chore . Because it ’s impossible to put Earth on a scale , scientist had to triangulate its mass using other measurable physical object .
Related : How do we know how older Earth is ?
Earth weighs as much as 13 quadrillion pyramid of Khafres at Giza in Egypt.
The first component was Isaac Newton ’s law of universal gravitation , Stephan Schlamminger , a metrologist at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology , told Live Science . Everything that has spate also has a gravitational force , meaning any two objects will always have some force between them .
Newton ’s natural law of universal gravitational force states that the gravitational power between two objects ( F ) can be influence by multiplying the respective masses of the object ( m₁ and m₂ ) , dividing by the length between the centers of the object feather ( r² ) , and then multiply that number by the gravitative constant ( M ) , otherwise known as the intrinsic military strength ofgravity , or F = G((m₁*m₂)/r² ) .
Using this equivalence , scientists could have theoretically measured Earth ’s slew by measuring the planet ’s gravitative force on an physical object on Earth ’s surface . But there was a job : Nobody could figure out a issue for G.
Sir Isaac Newton’s law of universal gravitation, F=G((m₁m₂)/r²).*
Then , in 1797 , physicist Henry Cavendish commence what became acknowledge as the " Cavendish experimentation . " Using an object forebode a torsion balance , made up of two rotating rod with wind spheres attach to them , Cavendish found the amount of gravitational force between the two curing bymeasuring the angle on the perch , which change as the smaller spheres were draw to the larger ones .
" His work was very original and made a big impact at the time,“John West , a physiologist at the University of California , San Diego , told Live Science .
Knowing the mass and distance between the area , Cavendish calculated thatG= 6.74×10−11 m3 kg–1 s−2 . The International Science Council ’s Committee on Data currently lists G as6.67430 x 10 - 11 m3 kg-1 s-2 , only a few decimal stop off from Cavendish ’s original number . Scientists have since used chiliad to calculate Earth ’s mess using other objects of know mass and arrived at the number of 13.1 septillion lbf. we know today .
A diagram of Cavendish’s experiment to measure the gravitational constant. Using two sets of lead spheres suspended by a torsion wire, Cavendish measured the twisting of the wire as the smaller spheres were attracted to the larger ones. That measurement could be used to determine the gravitational force between them, and from there the gravitational constant.
Although it ’s been more than two centuries since Cavendish ’s experimentation , his torsion balance method acting is still used today , West said . However , Schlamminger punctuate that although Newton ’s equation and the torsion balance are important tools , the measurements they deliver continue subject to human fault . In the centuries since Cavendish ’s experiments , different scientists have measured g-force dozens of times , and each has come up with aslightly different result . The number only diverge by thousandth of decimal places , but it ’s enough to deepen the calculation for Earth ’s hoi polloi and enough to bother the scientists who value it .
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" For us , it ’s this report cold shoulder in our skin that we have to desex , " Schlamminger said .
Despite the frustrations around G , Schlamminger does n’t think the variance in that telephone number is needs speculative .
" Sometimes it ’s the pass that the macrocosm gives us that we can utilize our lever tumbler to and get more scientific savvy , " he said . " This may be a crack the universe is offering us , and we do n’t want to permit that opportunity overhaul . "
