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One way would be to weigh a single cubic meter of rock then multiply by the number of cubic meters in the Earth, whose size was known at that time.

A better was is to use the orbit of the Moon and Newton's law of gravity to calculate how heavy the Earth must be to make the Moon orbit the way it does. This is better since the surface rocks are not as heavy as the material in the core, so the first method above would give a weight that is a little too small.

2006-08-11 02:45:51 · answer #1 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0 0

I dont think of that any of the extra modern-day procedures of computing mass of the earth (with the aid of astronomy and attraction of alternative a lot in area, intense velocity pictures of products falling in a vacuume) and so on rather ought to be accurately utilized interior the seventeenth 18th century. to accomplish that could require a lot extra precise time preserving and pictures together with the theoretical ideas of Newton as to the way gravity works. a coarse approximation ought to be made with the aid of in simple terms finding the quantity of the earth (by using fact they knew it replaced into type of a sphere, and that they knew the diameter to interior some %). Then all one has to do is approximate the mass of an usual piece of the earth with the aid of weighing rocks of prevalent quantity. i could suspect that they did not know the density of the midsection of the earth as accurately as we do immediately yet they might truthfully be interior the superb suited ballpark +/- 50% with this mindset. As for extra suited estimates the formulation in touch a gravitational consistent, and whilst newton might have desperate considered one of those consistent existed his wager replaced into probable slightly off formulation the accuracy of the "consistent" of gravity that's mandatory to come across the load of the earth could be lacking I doubt that they might do a lot extra suited. Cavendish found out the load of the earth with the aid of measuring the gravitiational consistent interior the top of it sluggish selection (1798). as quickly as the gravitationl consistent ought to be desperate accurately, and distances prevalent then the formulation ought to be utilized.

2016-10-01 22:36:59 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

since they already knew the surface area of the earth, simple geometry,&calculus couldbe used.The weights of materials and measurements have been known for a long time.

2006-08-10 20:05:53 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

They walked from point A to point Z there I won

2006-08-10 19:51:13 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

they turn the measurement tools upside down.

2006-08-10 21:44:12 · answer #5 · answered by Answer 4 · 0 0

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