Very often we willy-nilly think about seemingly strange and meaningless questions. We are often interested in the numerical values of some parameters, as well as their comparison with other, but known to us quantities. Very often, such questions come to the mind of children, and parents have to answer them.
What is the volume of the earth? It can be difficult to answer the question, because the brain is very reluctant to remember those quantities that it rarely has to apply in life. If you heard the answer to this question a long time ago, today you are unlikely to remember it, since it has not been useful to you since then.
Before giving an exact answer and comparing the volume of the Earth with the quantities known to us, we plunge into the history of geometry. After all, this science was originally created to measure various characteristics of our planet.
History
Geometry originated in ancient Egypt. People very often needed (as now) to find distances between cities, measure certain objects, measure the area of land that belonged to them. Thanks to all this, a special science appeared - geometry (from the words "geo" - Earth, and "metros" - to measure). And initially it came down only to application. But for some measurements more complex calculations were required. Then such philosophers and scientists as Pythagoras and Euclid appeared at the dawn of the development of this science.
During construction, even at first glance, simple structures must be able to measure how much material will be used for construction, to calculate the distance between points and the angles between straight planes. You also need to know the properties of simple geometric shapes. Thus, the Egyptian pyramids, built in the 2-3 century BC. e., amazed by the accuracy of their spatial relationships, proving that their builders knew many geometric positions and had a large base for accurate mathematical calculations.
Then, with the development of geometry, it lost its original purpose and expanded its fields of application. Today it is impossible to imagine any production without calculations using geometric methods.
In the next section, we will talk about methods for measuring various geometric characteristics for different bodies.
Body measurement
For rectangular bodies, volume and area measurements are the simplest. It is only necessary to know the width, length and height of the figure in order to find out everything about it that is necessary. The volume of a rectangular body is the product of three spatial values. The area of such a figure is equal to twice the sum of the pairwise products of the parties. If we represent these formulas mathematically, then for the volume the following equality will be valid: V = abc, and for the area: S = 2 (ab + bc + ac).
But for a ball, for example, these formulas are very inconvenient. To calculate the diameter of the ball (and from it the radius), you need to enclose it in a cube with which it would be in contact at six points. The length (width or height) of this cube will be the diameter of the ball. But it is much easier to immediately find out the volume of the ball by dipping it into a vessel filled to the brim. By measuring the spilled volume of water, we can find out the volume of the ball. And since the formula for the volume of the ball is V = 4/3 * π * R 3 , from it we can find the radius that will help to find further characteristics of the body.
There is another interesting way to measure the volume of a ball, which we will discuss in the next section.
How to measure the volume of the earth?
And if the body is too large, for example, a planet, how to accurately measure its volume and surface area? We have to resort to more interesting and sophisticated methods.
Let's start from afar. As you know, if you imagine a ball in two-dimensional space, you get a circle. Suppose that from some point on a ball two rays fall into two different places close to each other. If you look carefully, it will be seen that they fall to the surface at different angles. Using simple geometric constructions, you can notice that from the center of the ball you can draw lines connecting these two points. Between themselves, these lines will form a certain angle, which will correspond to the previously measured distance between these points. Thus, we know the length of the arc corresponding to any angle. Since everything is 360 degrees in a circle, we can easily find the circumference of a circle. And from the formula for the circumference, we find the radius from which the volume is calculated using the well-known formula.
In this way, the volume of large bodies, including celestial ones, is found. It was used by the Greeks in ancient times to learn more about the Earth. So they calculated the volume of the Earth. Although, of course, these data are approximate, because there are a lot of errors that turn out to be unaccounted for with this method of measurement.
Before giving an answer to the main question, we’ll understand how such complex quantities are measured today with the smallest possible error.
Modern measurement methods
Today we have a mass of advanced technologies that allow us to clarify the calculations of ancient scientists about the different characteristics of the Earth. For this, in the last century, mankind used orbiting satellites. They can measure the circumference of our planet with the greatest accuracy, and based on these data calculate the radius, knowing which, as we have already found out, it is easy to find the volume of the Earth.
It's time to find out the exact number and compare it with the values we know.
What is the volume of the earth?
So, we are close to the main issue of this article. The volume of the Earth is 1,083,210,000,000 km 3 . Is this a lot? It depends on what you compare it to. Of the objects that we are able to compare with this value, only another celestial body is suitable. Thus, we can say that the volume of the moon is only two percent of the earth.
There are also planets, for example, Jupiter, which have a huge volume due to the fact that they have a small density and a large surface area. The volume of the Earth could also be larger if it consisted mainly of gases, and not of solid and liquid substances.
Application
We need such values rather for interest. But in real life they are used very actively. In astronomy, such quantities as the Earth’s volume, Earth’s mass, Earth ’s radius are used to calculate the orbits of satellites launched from the surface of our planet. Also, these data may be useful for more basic research. It is interesting to use these data in geography and geology, because calculating the volume of the Earth is of interest for exploration work and an approximate assessment of mineral deposits.
Inaccuracies
As you know, everywhere has its own errors. And in calculating the volume of the Earth there are a lot of them. More precisely, only one error contributes to the measurements, but it is the most significant. It consists in the fact that the Earth is not perfectly round. It is flattened at the poles and also has surface irregularities in the form of hollows and mountains. Although the planet is covered by the atmosphere, and most of these effects affecting the measurements are smoothed out, density measurement is very difficult.
Conclusion
The physical characteristics of the Earth have always been a sufficiently significant topic for everyone. It happens that it is not clear for what reason, but I want to know the answer to the question of how many percent of the planet’s area is occupied by the oceans or what is the volume of the Earth. In this article, we tried not only to give an exact answer, but also to tell how and with what help it was calculated.