2. Mass of Earth\'s Atmosphere (10 pts) There are no new skills required to answ

Question

2. Mass of Earth's Atmosphere (10 pts) There are no new skills required to answer questions like this (and 1b) beyond what we discussed in class at the beginning of the semester: basic manipulation of quantities and their units. a. (2) Earth's surface pressure is approximately 1 kg per square centimeter. What is Earth's surface b. (2) What is Earth's surface area, in square kilometers, assuming Earth's radius is 6400 km (and c. (2) Using your answers for (a) and (b), what is the total mass of Earth's entire atmosphere, in d. (2) What fraction (or percentage, if you prefer) of Earth's total mass does its atmosphere account e. (2) The Earth's oceans are estimated to have a mass of about 1.4 x 10 l kg. How many times pressure in kilograms per square kilometer? (Appendices C.3 and C.4 might be helpful for this) using the fact that surface area is given by 4 × × (Radius)"? kilograms? (look at the units!) for? (Use Appendix E for Earth's mass) more massive are the Earth's oceans than the Earth's atmosphere?

Explanation / Answer

a: 1cm= 1km/100000 or 10^-5 km

now if the pressure of earth is 1kg/cm^2

pressure of earth in 1kg/km^2 is equal to 1kg/((1km^2 )*(10^-5*2) which is equal to 10^10kg/km^2

b: surface area of earth is total area land on circular earth which can be computed by formula 4*3.14*(R^2)

where R is the radius of the earth which is 6400 km

now surface area is 4*3.14*(6400)^2=514457600 km square

c: Mass of the atmosphere is the pressure of air in 1km square into total surface area of earth

now from part a pressure/km^2 = 10^10 kg/km^2 and from part B surface of earth is 514457600 km square

So mass of atmosphere = (10^10)*(514457600)= 514457600*10^10 kg or 5.14*10^18 kg

d: mass of earth is 5.9*10^24 kg

percentage of atmosphere weigh accounts for earth mass is = (mass of atm/ mass of earth)*100

=(5.14*10^18/5.9*10^24)*100=8.7*10^-5 %

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse 2
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.