New answers tagged planets
3
votes
What counts as the Earth's mass? At which point would it increase or decrease?
The real answer is "if you have to ask what counts as Earth-mass, it's a poor unit for the question at hand." We only use this for approximations, giving a sense of scale to otherwise ...
1
vote
What counts as the Earth's mass? At which point would it increase or decrease?
In addition to the previous answer: the mass of the Earth is not constant. You have examples of objects leaving the Earth, but the mass can also increase when meteorites (big or small) hit the Earth. ...
14
votes
What counts as the Earth's mass? At which point would it increase or decrease?
A great tool for answering these types of conceptual questions is an order of magnitude estimate, or a Fermi estimate.
Let's assume the Curiosity Rover has about the same mass as a car. A quick ...
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