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Re: (meteorobs) Re: urgent astronomy question



The sort of obvious answer would be that the e means that the following
integer represents the power of ten (exponent) to multiply the first number,
i.e. #1=.98 times ten to the 23 power.  However that confuses me in that the
mass of the earth according to some very old class notes of mine is 5.977
times ten to the 24th power in kilograms.  It doesn't seem to fit my tables
of other planet masses.  Oh well something to think about.  It is unusual to
give the absolute masses of the planets.  It is usually given a a ratio to
that of the mass of the earth which in turn is taken as one.  In the last
thirty years our knowledge of the masses and planetary elements has improved
tremendously.

chris smith wrote:

> Is there anyone (there must be!) out there who can answer the following
> question:
>
> In my teaching materials, the letter "e" appears several times in
> quantitative values concerning the planets of our solar system.  I had
> assumed that it represented a constant value for Earth, multiplied by
> whatever numeric value.  For example, I have information on the masses of
> two planets: #1 = .98e+23;  #2 = 1.08e+23
>
> What does this mean?  I'm at a loss.
>
> Thank-you,
> M. Wittmeier
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