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Let\'s say you had to move the Earth with a lever. According to Archimedes, this

ID: 1446474 • Letter: L

Question

Let's say you had to move the Earth with a lever. According to Archimedes, this is possible if you had a long enough lever. You could use the Moon as a fulcrum: Calculate how long of a lever you would need. (It will be gigantic!) Use the following information: Mass of the Earth = 5.97 Times 10 ^24kg Distance from the Earth to the Moon = 384,000 km Force you can exert on the lever = 1000 N Convert your answer to light-years: 1 light year = 9.46 Times 10 ^12 km How big is your answer? How does this very large answer compare to the size of the Milky Way galaxy?

Explanation / Answer

Considering this case with respect to Sun

Weight of earth = Mgsun = 5.97*1024*273.7=1634*1024 N

Now in order to move earth the torque due to 1000N force should be greater than the one produced by weight of earth

1000*d>1634*1024*384*106

Where d is the distance of 1000N force from fulcrum

1000d > 627456*1030

d> 627.456*1030 m

Now the milkyway is about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 km in size

Comparing both

Size of the lever required will be 627.456*1030/1018 = 627.456*1012 times larger