The earth can be approximated as a sphere of uniform density, rotating on its axis once a day. the mass of the earth is 5.97*1024 kg, the radius of the earth is 6.38*106 m, and the period of rotation for the earth is 24.0 hrs. part a what is the moment of inertia of the earth? use the uniform-sphere approximation described in the introduction.

In the problem, we were asked to solve for the moment of inertia of the earth. It is already given that the moment of inertia (I) of a "uniform" sphere of radius R is 2/5 M R^2 and the coefficient of a uniform sphere is 2/5, or 0.40.

M refers to the mass of the uniform sphere in question

R refers to the Radius of the uniform sphere (squared).

The following is the process in finding the moment of inertia.

I = (0.40) (5.97 x 10^24 kg) (6.38 x 10^6 m)

I = 9.72 x 10^37 kg * m^2

Thus, the answer is 9.72 x 10^37 kg * m^2.