Normalizing mass--EMERGENCY?

Question

How do you normalize mass of a moon to that of it's host planet.

use the earth as an example.

thanks.

Answer 1

Normalizing usually refers to creating a dimensionless parameter by comparing one thing to something else with the same units; for example, a normalized version of the mass of the earth's moon would be the moon's mass divided by the earth's mass, creating a dimensionless fraction that describes the mass of the moon in terms of it's relation to the earth. The same type of normalized mass for Deimos would be a much smaller fraction.