How do we know the mass of a planet originally appeared on Quora - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. Answer by Geoffrey Widdison on ...

The terms weight and mass are often used incorrectly. Phrases like ‘a bag of sugar weighs 1 kg’ are not scientifically correct. This means that a 1 kg mass would be attracted to Earth by a force of 10 ...

Barry Lienert, a geophysicist at the University of Hawaii, provides the following explanation. We start by determining the mass of the Earth. Issac Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation tells us that ...