Dolores Willis, of Tucson, Arizona, for her question:

How much does the earth weigh ?

The fob of weighing the whole world seems about impossible. Certainly you could not put the huge, round earth onto a scales., And the idea of weighing every stone, every mountain, houses tree and every pail of water separately would most likely take forever. Even if we could reach the tons of rock buried three thousand miles beneath our feet.

But, it seems, our modern scientists can do the impossible  for they have weighed the whole world The scientists of the American Bureau of Standards figure the weight of the world to be six billion trillion tons, or there abouts. This includes every rock, mountain, tree, stone and pail of water. It includes you and me, every cloud and all the air above us.

So, next time somebody says he has the weight of the world on his shoulders, just do not believe him. He’s kidding.