AUDIO: How heavy is the Earth?

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How does the earth weigh?

September 8th, 2014 at 11:41 BST Updated

How heavy is the Earth?

According to Terry Quinn, Director Emeritus of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, the earth weighs about 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg.

In addition, he said today moderator John Humphrys program, scientists investigate the accuracy of the measurements of G, Newton's gravitational constant: "The results we obtained are very different."

G, which defines the severity scale, measured at the end of the 18th century, with an accuracy of about one percent.

But, he said, the latest discoveries of scientists around the world have changed greatly, saying "we do not make our measurements correctly."

A special issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A * is published today the problem to explore.

First broadcast on the Today program on BBC Radio 4 on Monday, 8 September.

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