this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024
12 points (73.1% liked)

Ask Science

8685 readers
84 users here now

Ask a science question, get a science answer.


Community Rules


Rule 1: Be respectful and inclusive.Treat others with respect, and maintain a positive atmosphere.


Rule 2: No harassment, hate speech, bigotry, or trolling.Avoid any form of harassment, hate speech, bigotry, or offensive behavior.


Rule 3: Engage in constructive discussions.Contribute to meaningful and constructive discussions that enhance scientific understanding.


Rule 4: No AI-generated answers.Strictly prohibit the use of AI-generated answers. Providing answers generated by AI systems is not allowed and may result in a ban.


Rule 5: Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.Adhere to community guidelines and comply with instructions given by moderators.


Rule 6: Use appropriate language and tone.Communicate using suitable language and maintain a professional and respectful tone.


Rule 7: Report violations.Report any violations of the community rules to the moderators for appropriate action.


Rule 8: Foster a continuous learning environment.Encourage a continuous learning environment where members can share knowledge and engage in scientific discussions.


Rule 9: Source required for answers.Provide credible sources for answers. Failure to include a source may result in the removal of the answer to ensure information reliability.


By adhering to these rules, we create a welcoming and informative environment where science-related questions receive accurate and credible answers. Thank you for your cooperation in making the Ask Science community a valuable resource for scientific knowledge.

We retain the discretion to modify the rules as we deem necessary.


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Well it's not wet, but if you stopped the reactions, the sheer force of gravity of the upper layers on the inner layers would start them again. Not that that has any effect on its mass. (I mean it does, because the nuclear reactions convert mass to energy, but that's a very long process.)

Asking weight doesn't really make sense, because weight is a product of gravity. The sun has a mass of 1.9891x10^30 kg, and at 1g that's 4.384x1030 lb, at least according to the Google result summary I copy-pasted from.

[–] Steve@startrek.website 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

How much would the earth weigh if it was sitting on the frozen surface of the switched off Sun?

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The Earth's weight is 1.317×10^25 lbs. Gravity on the "surface" of the sun is about 28 times Earth's, so if the Earth was a point mass (it isn't) on the surface of the sun (there isn't one, it's a soup of plasma 250 mi deep) the Earth would weigh 3.687×10^26 lbs.

Of course that couldn't happen anyway because part of the reason the sun is the volume it is, is because of the nuclear reactions blowing it apart. If you stopped the sun, it would collapse (and that crushing energy would restart the reactions).

Also the earth isn't a point mass, so the point where the Earth and Sun are touching would experience more gravity than the point on the opposite side of the earth.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee -3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm sure it would be the same as it currently does.

[–] FlowVoid@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Weight depends on location. For example, you would weigh less on the moon.

[–] Don_Dickle@lemmy.world -2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

So if I was on a less gravity planet it would be easy to pick up?

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Weight is determined by gravity, which is determined by the mass of the objects.

Regardless of gravity, objects still retain their mass, so you wouldn't be able to move anything that massive.

Moving an object requires force, the amount of force required is related to the object's mass and current velocity (momentum). Even sitting still you'd have to accelerate the mass from zero.

I forget the acceleration formulas, physics was a few decades ago. F=M*A?

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 4 points 2 months ago

Yes, that's right. So the force required to accelerate an extremely massive object is very high.

But, if you only want to accelerate it a little tiny bit, you only need a little tiny bit of force. So all other things being equal, you could push on the sun and maybe after some days, weeks, months, or years, you'd start to notice that it moved a little bit.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago

It would have to be near zero gravity, and you would have to have something even bigger to brace yourself against, and you would only be moving it an infinitesimally small amount at a time, but yes it would be possible.

That's ignoring a very long list of things that would kill you before you even got to try, anyway.