Schiehallion experiment
Imagine you have a really big ball, the size of the Earth. And you want to figure out how much the Earth weighs. But you can't just pick it up and put it on a scale, because it's too heavy and you might hurt yourself!
So, a long time ago, some smart people thought of a way to do this. They went to a mountain in Scotland called Schiehallion and did an experiment. They wanted to find out how much the Earth weighed by figuring out how strong gravity was on the mountain.
Gravity is what pulls everything down towards the center of the Earth. The stronger the gravity, the closer you get to the Earth and the heavier everything feels.
The scientists marked two points on the mountain, at the bottom and the top. They measured the distance between the two points. Then they hung a big weight from a long rope, and measured how much the rope stretched and how long it took to stop moving.
Based on all these measurements, they were able to figure out how strong gravity was on the mountain. And from that, they could calculate how heavy the Earth was.
This experiment was important because it was the first time anyone had figured out how to measure the mass of the Earth without moving it or touching it. It helped scientists understand more about the nature of gravity and the size of our planet.
So, a long time ago, some smart people thought of a way to do this. They went to a mountain in Scotland called Schiehallion and did an experiment. They wanted to find out how much the Earth weighed by figuring out how strong gravity was on the mountain.
Gravity is what pulls everything down towards the center of the Earth. The stronger the gravity, the closer you get to the Earth and the heavier everything feels.
The scientists marked two points on the mountain, at the bottom and the top. They measured the distance between the two points. Then they hung a big weight from a long rope, and measured how much the rope stretched and how long it took to stop moving.
Based on all these measurements, they were able to figure out how strong gravity was on the mountain. And from that, they could calculate how heavy the Earth was.
This experiment was important because it was the first time anyone had figured out how to measure the mass of the Earth without moving it or touching it. It helped scientists understand more about the nature of gravity and the size of our planet.