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How to measure the density of a white dwarf if its diameter is 1000 km and weighs 10³⁰ kg?

User Orangepill
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1 Answer

5 votes

Well, first of all, 10³⁰ kg is its mass, not its weight.

-- Density of anything is (its mass) divided by (its volume).

-- You know the white dwarf's mass.

-- The volume of any sphere is (4/3) (pi) (radius)³

-- The radius is 1/2 of the diameter.

-- Now you have the ball. Run with it.

I did it quickly and got (1.91 x 10¹²) kilogram/meter³ .
That may be wrong. You have to check it. And even
if it's correct, you probably want to express density in
units of gram/cm³ the way everybody always does.

User KirstieBallance
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7.6k points