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Title: It’s estimated that there are a trillion comets in the Oort cloud, which extends Post by: BBAgent! on Nov 24, 2014 It’s estimated that there are a trillion comets in the Oort cloud, which extends out to about 50,000 AU.
Part A What is the total volume of the Oort cloud, in cubic AU? (Hints: For the purpose of this calculation, you can assume the Oort cloud fills the whole sphere out to 50000 AU. The equation for the volume of a sphere is 43πr3 where r is the radius.) VtheOortcloud = AU3 Part B How much space does each comet have in cubic AU, on average? Vper comet = AU3 Part C Take the cube root of the average volume per comet, to find their typical spacing in AU. Ltypical = AU Title: Re: It’s estimated that there are a trillion comets in the Oort cloud, which extends Post by: duddy on Nov 24, 2014 Similar Question What is the total volume of the Oort cloud, in cubic \({\rm AU}\)? (Hints: For the purpose of this calculation, you can assume the Oort cloud fills the whole sphere out to 50000 \({\rm AU}\). The equation for the volume of a sphere is \(\frac{4}{3}\pi r^{3}\) where r is the radius.) Answer Plug the numbers into the formula and calculate: 4/3 pi r^3 = 4/3 pi (5x10^4)^3 = 5.24 x 10^14 cubic AU |