Introduction to Earth Sciences I
1.2 Mass of the Earth: Cavendish's Experiment to "Weigh the Earth"
The next thing is to try to find out how much the Earth might weigh. This is much more difficult, and requires a very cunning experiment.
The first attempt to do this was made by Cavendish in 1798. Again the elements of theory, observation and deduced quantity are present. In this case we begin with Newton's universal law of gravitation which describes the force of attraction between two bodies having mass, and use the theory to set up an experiment that will allow the Earth's mass to be determined -
