Kerbin/Earth gravitational diference anomoly

[Souper]

Why is Kerbin's gravitational pull the same as Earth's, even though Kerbin is smaller than the moon?

In fact, this same thing spans across the entirety of the Kerbol system.

Why???

[andrewas]

Because the developers set it up that way. For playability reasons, they wanted unrealistically small planets with strong gravity. They could have used the correct scale - theres a mod that does this - but everything would take much longer. And they needed the strong gravity or it wouldn't feel right. A 600Km rock like Kerbin should have very weak gravity.

[DaveofDefeat]

Density! #10char

[Souper]

DaveofDefeat wins!!!!!

[Daddy Cecil]

Bump!

On my online physics homework, I found something that I think is highly relevant. We are currently talking about fields.

"If the Earth were one-half the size, but had one-fourth the mass, how would your weight compare to your current weight? Your weight on this 'other Earth' would be..."

Kerbin is 10 or 11 times smaller than Earth, yet it has the same gravity. However, Kerbin's mass should be 20 times less than Earth's mass. Since I am not at home to see Kerbin's mass in the Kerbal Knowledgebase, I will leave this to you.

Edited March 13, 2014 by Daddy Cecil

[nobbers12345]

Extremely high and unrealistic densities.

[Roastduck]

Because it's a game, and not real life.

[Red Iron Crown]

Because the original game didn't have timewarp, and the devs wanted reasonable orbit times in LKO.

[Holo]

Because Kerbals use a different unit of measurement to us. The Kermetre is equal to 10-11 metres, hence the confusion over units of measurement.

[Red Iron Crown]

Because Kerbals use a different unit of measurement to us. The Kermetre is equal to 10-11 metres, hence the confusion over units of measurement.

That would break just about everything.

[Brotoro]

That would break just about everything.

Breaks the physics... and gives us 33-ft. tall gigantic kerbals who scoff at the cube-square law.

[m4v]

Kerbin is smaller because taking 15 minutes to reach low orbit gets tedious fast.

[Holo]

Breaks the physics... and gives us 33-ft. tall gigantic kerbals who scoff at the cube-square law.

Kerbals are also bad at building rulers, so when they measure their own heights they're off by a factor of 10.