what is the center of mass of the earth's atmosphere?

Answer 1

assuming:
the atmosphere is spherical
homogeneous with distance from the earth

So, the centre of mass is at the centre of the earth.

what does that mean? u can not hang up the atmosphere on the wall from its centre of mass...... lol

Answer 2

Mass Of Earth Atmosphere

Answer 3

Imagine all of the masses in a collection of masses fixed, so they could no longer move with respect to each other. Then imagine another single mass, concentrated at one point, whose mass was the same as the total mass of the collection. The center of mass of that collection is the location where those two things would behave identically as relates to mass (gravitational force, acceleration from an applied force).

For the earth's atmosphere, if you assume spherical symmetry, it would be at the center of the atmosphere. The earth isn't precisely spherical, but it is a nearly perfect spheroid. In that case, it would be at the midpoint between the geographic north and south poles.