Volume of the Oceans

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OP
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Volume of the Oceans

Post by OP »

At first I thought the oceans where huge:
Image
But then I saw/read this: if you made a sphere of the ocean / atmosphere.
Image
http://blog.phiffer.org/post/27344630/l ... 87-billion

There isn't actually that much ocean/atmosphere in this place.
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msoultan
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Post by msoultan »

i'm so confused...
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stebbins
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Post by stebbins »

Average depth of the ocean is several miles (don't know the exact depth, assume 3 miles.) Earth is 4000 miles in radius. Water covers about 3/4 of the surface, so that works out to a rough estimate: 1/1000 of the earth's radius is water. Volume is 4/3 Pi R^3, so as you can see, the volume of surface water is tiny compared to the volume of the Earth...

1/(1000 * 1000 * 1000) = 1/1,000,000,000 of the volume is surface water.

The 4/3 and Pi cancel out, as they are in the volume calculation for both the earth and the water.

On the other hand, it is the surface that we live on...
Fly High; Fly Far; Fly Safe -- George
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