Air is light, but there is a lot of it. What is the total mass of Earth's atmosphere, in kilograms?
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Answer
About 5.1 quintillion kg
About half of all that air is squeezed into the lowest 5.6 km, which is why climbers on the highest peaks struggle to breathe.
How to estimate it
Air pressure at sea level equals the weight of about 1 kg on every square centimetre, or 10,000 kg on every square metre. Earth's surface is 4 × 3.14 × 6,400², about 510 million square kilometres, which is 5.1 × 10^14 square metres. Multiply: 5.1 × 10^14 × 10,000 = 5.1 × 10^18 kg. The measured value is about 5.1 × 10^18 kg.
Source: NASA; US National Center for Atmospheric Research
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