Concept explainers
Stellar Corpses: White Dwarfs and Neutron Stars. A few billion years from now, after exhausting its nuclear engines, the Sun will become a type of remnant star called a white dwarf. It will still have nearly the same mass (about 2* 1030 kg) as the Sun today, but its radius will be only that of Earth (about 6400 km).
a. Calculate the average density of the white dwarf in units of kilograms per cubic centimeter.
b. What is the mass of a teaspoon of material from the white dwarf? (Hint: A teaspoon is about 4 cubic centimeters.) Compare this mass to the mass of something familiar (for example, a person, a car, a tank).
c. A neutron star is a type of stellar remnant compressed to even greater densities than a white dwarf. Suppose that a neutron star has a mass 1.4 times the mass of the Sun but a radius of only 10 kilometers. What is its density? Compare the mass of 1 cubic centimeter of neutron star material to the total mass of Mt.Everest (about 5 * 1010 kg).
Want to see the full answer?
Check out a sample textbook solutionChapter 3 Solutions
Using & Understanding Mathematics: A Quantitative Reasoning Approach (7th Edition)
- Algebra & Trigonometry with Analytic GeometryAlgebraISBN:9781133382119Author:SwokowskiPublisher:CengageGlencoe Algebra 1, Student Edition, 9780079039897...AlgebraISBN:9780079039897Author:CarterPublisher:McGraw HillAlgebra: Structure And Method, Book 1AlgebraISBN:9780395977224Author:Richard G. Brown, Mary P. Dolciani, Robert H. Sorgenfrey, William L. ColePublisher:McDougal Littell
- Trigonometry (MindTap Course List)TrigonometryISBN:9781337278461Author:Ron LarsonPublisher:Cengage Learning