Minecraft Science: Mass of the Minecraft Earth

[Wyboth]

I have 2 parties that helped me. Mojang and Issac Newton.

But really, this is awesome. And do items and gravel/sand/anvils fall the same? Also minecarts on slopes?

Thanks, and I will test gravel and anvils tomorrow. Minecart kinematics is a different experiment altogether.

[RuthlessTomato]

I have 2 parties that helped me. Mojang and Issac Newton.

But really, this is awesome. And do items and gravel/sand/anvils fall the same? Also minecarts on slopes?

Thanks, and I will test gravel and anvils tomorrow. Minecart kinematics is a different experiment altogether.

Alright. But you could test momentum by  the carts leaving tracks at different angles/speeds. I do know that carts travel farther while occupied. And maybe see if wind resistance slows down the anvil, or if weight has anything to do with it.

[NotABronie]

Thanks, and I will test gravel and anvils tomorrow. Minecart kinematics is a different experiment altogether.

No need, sand, enderdragon eggs, gravel, anvils and primed trinitrotoluene at a rate of 16 ms^-2

[DJAlphaWolf]

I have 2 parties that helped me. Mojang and Issac Newton.

But really, this is awesome. And do items and gravel/sand/anvils fall the same? Also minecarts on slopes?

Thanks, and I will test gravel and anvils tomorrow. Minecart kinematics is a different experiment altogether.

Alright. But you could test momentum by  the carts leaving tracks at different angles/speeds. I do know that carts travel farther while occupied. And maybe see if wind resistance slows down the anvil, or if weight has anything to do with it.

That would be because they have greater potential energy which is translated into kinetic energy when in motion.

Though what do i know? I took physics freshman year and completely forgot everything i ever learned in that class xD

Btw wyboth.

Haha, thanks. I also posted it on Minecraft Wiki. It's still there, so I take that as an accomplishment.

Can we have a link? I can't find it by searching xD

[Wyboth]

I have 2 parties that helped me. Mojang and Issac Newton.

But really, this is awesome. And do items and gravel/sand/anvils fall the same? Also minecarts on slopes?

Thanks, and I will test gravel and anvils tomorrow. Minecart kinematics is a different experiment altogether.

Alright. But you could test momentum by  the carts leaving tracks at different angles/speeds. I do know that carts travel farther while occupied. And maybe see if wind resistance slows down the anvil, or if weight has anything to do with it.

I can't really test minecarts at different angles, since sloped track is always sloped at 45 degrees. I can do different speeds. First, I'll probably have an occupied cart at the bottom of a slope and an occupied cart at the top of a slope. I'll push the occupied cart off and see what happens when they collide. My hypothesis is that the cart that I pushed will completely stop and the cart at the bottom of the hill will take off with the speed of the other cart before they collided (think Newton's cradle). Different speeds will follow that experiment.

As for anvils, it would be air resistance, not wind resistance. Vanilla Minecraft has no wind. However, it'd be impossible to have a control test, since you can't make a vacuum in Minecraft. Weight has nothing to do with it (think dropping a bowling ball and a tennis ball from a high building, they hit the ground at the same time).

[RuthlessTomato]

Alright. You are awesome.


One other thiing. I saw a video where a skele and spider were in 2 minecarts. They both launched off. They hit eachother and made a spider skele. Are powered rails "that" powerful?
Duh
DUH
DUUUHHH!

[Wyboth]

I have 2 parties that helped me. Mojang and Issac Newton.

But really, this is awesome. And do items and gravel/sand/anvils fall the same? Also minecarts on slopes?

Thanks, and I will test gravel and anvils tomorrow. Minecart kinematics is a different experiment altogether.

Alright. But you could test momentum by  the carts leaving tracks at different angles/speeds. I do know that carts travel farther while occupied. And maybe see if wind resistance slows down the anvil, or if weight has anything to do with it.

That would be because they have greater potential energy which is translated into kinetic energy when in motion.

Though what do i know? I took physics freshman year and completely forgot everything i ever learned in that class xD

Btw wyboth.

Haha, thanks. I also posted it on Minecraft Wiki. It's still there, so I take that as an accomplishment.

Can we have a link? I can't find it by searching xD

Link: http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/The_overworld#Trivia

Also, you could find potential and kinetic energy with these:

PE (potential energy) =mgh, m=mass, g=force of gravity, which is 14.4622 m/s, and h=height, which is how high above the ground the minecart is (1 block = 1 meter).

KE (kinetic energy) = 0.5*mv², m=mass, and v=velocity. Mass cancels in the 2 equations, assuming you are referring to the same object. Let's say that you dropped a button from a dispenser like I did, with a height of 10 meters. You would do:

PE=gh=14.4622*10=144.622J

Then, when it hits the ground, PE=KE, so

144.622=0.5v²

289.244=v²

v=17 m/s

Although this equation would be more efficient:

v_f²=v_o²+2ad, where v_f is final velocity, v_o is initial velocity, a is acceleration, which is 14.4622 m/s², and d is distance fallen, 10 meters. If we assume that the button started from rest at 10 meters, we can do this:

v_f²=0²+2*14.4622*10

v_f²=289.244

v_f=17 m/s

And they're the same answer!

[NotABronie]

but i think that the physics listed on the minecraft wiki are a load of crap, its just people dont want to do the math like wyboth did and just gave BS numbers to make people satisfied.

[DJAlphaWolf]

Awesome. Thanks wy!

The PE and KE equations made sense.



Now is it possible to determine if the planet orbits? I know we are given the length of a minecraft day to a year on the wiki. But how fast does the minecraft earth orbit, if at all?

Can we calculate axial tilt, if any?

Is it possible to translate the intensity of the sunlight equipped with the biome its in, into temperature? I doubt this is possible. But how awesome would it be if we could do it.

[joshskiizz]

By learning the characteristics of the ME, we can compare and contrast how life on it compares to Earth.

You did all of this to cc life? Usually I just play Flow Free or go out with friends.

[mcoon1]

First off, you can's start assuming that the measured constants of our universe would be the same in the minecraft universe. For instance: g=9.816m/s^2 on earth... but (as you noted) you can't assume that this would be the same on any planet! In the same way, you couldn't assume that G would be the same as in this universe. The reason that we have a value for G in the first place is because we conducted experiments in physics to determine it. You'd have to do the same for the Minecraft universe.

Even if we assume that G is the same in this universe, you have used the wrong equations. For instance, you are using equations for gravity that require the Minecraft earth to be spherical. In reality, you very easily could have used Gaussian physics OR Newtonian physics and advanced calculus to show that the vector for gravity on a (relatively) infinite, flat plane is perpendicular to the surface, downward, and equal to 2*pi*G*p*H, where pi=3.1415..., p is the average density of the the object per unit, and H is the thickness of the object. From this, you would get a very accurate value for g. However, even with this, since the Minecraft world could, in theory, expand infinitely outward, you can't use this value to calculate the mass of ME.

If you ask me, in order for the minecraft universe's physics to make sense, there must be a super dense (probably neutron star material-esk) layer of material a few hundred blocks below the layer of bedrock to account for the gravity. This makes sense, since it's density would make it absorb light, explaining the darkness below the map. Also, it would explain why the player dies when they pass to a certain depth below the map (spagetification).

[RuthlessTomato]

You need to show this to your teachers.

[Wyboth]

Awesome. Thanks wy!

The PE and KE equations made sense.



Now is it possible to determine if the planet orbits? I know we are given the length of a minecraft day to a year on the wiki. But how fast does the minecraft earth orbit, if at all?

Can we calculate axial tilt, if any?

Is it possible to translate the intensity of the sunlight equipped with the biome its in, into temperature? I doubt this is possible. But how awesome would it be if we could do it.

We know the ME orbits its star, but it would be impossible to determine its orbital period. The star has no perigee or apogee, and the ecliptic's altitude does not change. The only conclusions we can draw from this are that the ME's orbit around its star is circular, and that its axis is pendicular to its plane of orbit.

It might be possible to translate luminosity into temperature, but our current laws would not work for this, since they rely on the inverse square law, where in Minecraft light decays linearly.

Mcoon, I will respond to you in a bit. I'm out of time right now.

[mcoon1]

Let me point something else out:

We can calculate the average density of ME using Gausse's laws:

g = (2*pi*G)*p*H    (m/sec^2)
g = (4.19338524e-10) * p * H    (m/sec^2)
g = (4.19338524e-10) * p * (64)    (m/sec^2)
g = (2.68376655e-8) * p    (m/sec^2)
(14.4622)     (m/sec^2)  = (2.68376655e-8) * p      (m/sec^2)

p = 538876974.251    Kg / m^3
p = 538876.974 g / cm^3

This means that, on average, ME has to be 27935.56 times as dense as gold (p = 19.29 g/cm^3).

For estimation purposes, we can guess that the average density of minecraft blocks is arround 2 g/cm^3 (water = 1g/cm^3, dirt = 1.22 g/cm^3, stone (granite) = 2.75 g/cm^c). With this approximation, we are accounting for only 0.0000051032% of what it should be.

This means that there MUST be something located below the bedrock layers from 0-4 that is creating the gravity on ME. As I stated earlier, a layer of superdense material located a hundred blocks below the bottom map-layer would do the trick.

The cool thing to note about this would be that, with such a high mass and density, ME's sun would actually orbit it, much like the ancient astonomers thought about the earth-sun system!

[Wyboth]

Firstly, I would like to note that the paper has been updated. I had used the distance from the origin to the edge of the world as the radius before. In reality, this is half of the circumference. I have applied these changes. The correct mass is 1.924 * 10²⁵kg. The acceleration was not affected.

Now, I will respond to Mcoon.

First off, you can's start assuming that the measured constants of our universe would be the same in the minecraft universe. For instance: g=9.816m/s^2 on earth... but (as you noted) you can't assume that this would be the same on any planet! In the same way, you couldn't assume that G would be the same as in this universe. The reason that we have a value for G in the first place is because we conducted experiments in physics to determine it. You'd have to do the same for the Minecraft universe.

Even if we assume that G is the same in this universe, you have used the wrong equations. For instance, you are using equations for gravity that require the Minecraft earth to be spherical. In reality, you very easily could have used Gaussian physics OR Newtonian physics and advanced calculus to show that the vector for gravity on a (relatively) infinite, flat plane is perpendicular to the surface, downward, and equal to 2*pi*G*p*H, where pi=3.1415..., p is the average density of the the object per unit, and H is the thickness of the object. From this, you would get a very accurate value for g. However, even with this, since the Minecraft world could, in theory, expand infinitely outward, you can't use this value to calculate the mass of ME.

If you ask me, in order for the minecraft universe's physics to make sense, there must be a super dense (probably neutron star material-esk) layer of material a few hundred blocks below the layer of bedrock to account for the gravity. This makes sense, since it's density would make it absorb light, explaining the darkness below the map. Also, it would explain why the player dies when they pass to a certain depth below the map (spagetification).

You are correct in saying that g differs between planets, as it is dependent on mass and radius. However, in our universe, G is a constant. I see no reason why we shouldn't assume that G is the same in the Minecraft universe, and since we cannot replicate Candevish's experiment, we really have no other choice.

Now, for Gauss's equation. g=2piGpH would give you the density of the ME, not the mass. I was specifically looking for mass. The reason why I didn't use this is because you could not accurately calculate the volume of the ME, since there are varying heights, air pockets in caves, etc. etc. etc. If we did know the exact volume of the ME, we could determine an accurate mass. But, since we lack this number, we cannot use Gauss's law to calculate mass.

The alternative is this. However, this is for a planet where it is as tall as it is wide, and a planet where F_g does not always point in the negative y direction. So it would not be accurate for Minecraft either.

Also, I would like to use Gauss's law for Earth.

g=(2*pi*G)pH
9.81=(2*3.141592654*6.67e-11)p*6378100
9.81=0.002672988p
p=3670.05 kg/m³
p=36700.5 g/cm³

By this calculation, the Earth is, on average, 1,902.566 times as dense as gold. Obviously something is wrong here.