Question

Suppose Earth's mass increased but Earth's diame-

ter did not change. How would the gravitational strength near
Earth's surface change?​

Answer 1

Answer: It would increase.

Step-by-step explanation:

The equation for determining the force of the gravitational pull between any two objects is:

`F = G (m1m2)/(r^2)`

Where G is the universal gravitational constant, m1 is the mass of one body, m2 is the mass of the other body, and r^2 is the distance between the two objects' centers squared.

Assuming the Earth's mass but not its diameter increased, in the equation above m1 (the term usually indicative of the object of larger mass) would increase, while the r^2 would not.

Thus, it goes without saying that, with some simple reasoning about fractions, an increasing numerator over a constant denominator would result in a larger number to multiply by G, thus also meaning a larger gravitational strength between Earth and whatever other object is of interest.