How to calculate mass of earth?

Also needed is Newton's second law of motion, F=ma, where F is the force applied to an object, m is the mass of the object, and a is its acceleration due to the force. Galileo determined that the acceleration due to the force of gravity of Earth was a constant equal to 9.8 m/sec2 near the surface of the Earth. read more

Knowing the mass and radius of the Earth and the distance of the Earth from the sun, we can calculate the mass of the sun (right), again by using the law of universal gravitation. The gravitational attraction between the Earth and the sun is G times the sun's mass times the Earth's mass, divided by the distance between the Earth and the sun squared. read more

Because we know the radius of the Earth, we can use the Law of Universal Gravitation to calculate the mass of the Earth in terms of the gravitational force on an object (its weight) at the Earth's surface, using the radius of the Earth as the distance. read more

Mass is a measure of how much matter, or material, an object is made of. Weight is a measurement of how the gravity of a body pulls on an object. Your mass is the same everywhere, but your weight would be vastly different on the Earth compared to on Jupiter or the Moon. read more