Jump to content

Help with calculating the density of a planet

gk636
in Homework Help

Featured Replies

Question: "Given the mass and radius of the planet Mercury, calculate the density."

 

Mass: 3.3010 x 10 to the 23rd kg

 

Radius: 2.440 x 10 t0 the 6th m

What you will want to do for these kinds of problems is to first locate the formulas you need.

ie.


Density = Mass / Volume

 

Now we see Mass is there, but we have a new problem. We don't know volume, so we go searching again:

 


Volume of a Sphere = 4/3 * Pi * r^3

 

or taken together:

 

Density = Mass / (4/3 * Pi * r^3)



From there you can plug your knowns(Mass, radius) in to find your unknowns(Density).

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Configure browser push notifications
Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.