How long a lever would Archimedes need?

Archimedes once was quoted by Pappus as saying

Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the Earth.

In reference to the lever.

So how long a lever would Archimedes need to lift the Earth? The equation for lever force is F1 * D1 = F2 * D2 .

F1 being the force exerted by object one (the Earth).

D1 is the distance between F1 and the fulcrum.

F2 is the force Archimedes is exerting on the lever (lets say 500 newtons).

D2 is the distance between F2 and the fulcrum.

Let us say that this is occurring on an infinite plane with no mass. If the force pushing Earth “down” is one g (9.81 m/s) then the amount of newtons the Earth is exerting is ⊕ * g (or 5.97219*1024 kg * 9.81 m/s). That is 5.8587*1025 newtons. Our equation is now:

5.8587*1025 * 1 = D2 * 500

All we have to do now to get D2 in meters is 5.8587*1025/500.

The lever is 1.1717*1023 meters long. That is 12.4 million light years (3.8 million parsecs).

Or roughly 100000000000000000000000 meters.

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One Comment

  1. If only there were more clveer people like you!

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