Getting to Know the Gravity of
the Situation:
The average mass of a neutron
star is around 1.4 times the mass of our sun
(Redd, Taylor), and also only has a diameter of
around 20 km.
With such a massive amount of
material packed into an almost unreal size,
strange things begin to happen. Our sun has
a mass of approximately 1.99x10^30 kg and a radius
of 6.96x10^8 m. Thus a Neutron star has an
approximate mass of 2.78x10^30, and a radius of
around 20000 m. What would the affects
of gravity be? Well if you where a distance
of more than or equal to the radius of our sun
away from both the affects would be very similar,
with the neutron star having a greater but not
huge difference in gravity. Once you start
to get closer and closer to the neutron star
though, things start to become more and more,
intense.
If we find the acceleration due
to gravity at the surface of the sun we get it to
be g(surface) = ((GM)/R^2) = ((6.67x10^-11
Nm^2/kg^2)(1.99x10^30 kg))/(6.96x10^8 m)^2 = 274
m/s^2. Which in relation to our g on earth
is insane! In fact the acceleration on the
surface of the sun is 27 times that here on
earth. Now, with even more mass, and a
comparatively miniscule radius, the acceleration
on the surface of the neutron star must be
massive, to find out we use the same equation,
=> g(surface neutronstar) =
((6.67x10^/11Nm^2/kg^2)(2.78x10^30 kg))/(20000m)^2
= 4.6x10^11 m/s^2. So, the acceleration on
the surface of a neutron star is astronomical.
To show how intense the difference
is, lets look at how much we would weigh on three
surfaces, the surface of the earth, the sun, and a
neutron star.
On earth the average male weighs somewhere in the
neighbor hood of 63 kg. So on the surface of
the earth, their force down due to gravity would
be 63 kg x 9.81m/s^2 = 618 N,
on the sun the force would be 63kg x 274m/s^2 =
17262 N, quite the difference. Now, on the
surface of the neutron star the force due to
gravity would be 63kg x (4.6x10^11m/s^2) =
2.9x10^13 N.
Source (Gif)
Lets
put that number and compare it to
something on earth. For instance,
the force due to gravity on a skyscraper
is around 1.5x10^9 N. The average
man on a Neutron star would weigh as much
as 20,000 skyscrapers on earth.
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