Like the introduction of hand calculators into the classroom in the 1970s, ChatGPT offers enormous promise but currently suffers from a variety of negative expectations. Some of the arguments against students using calculators in the 1970s classroom are being used today against ChatGPT. I think there are some applications that work very well if you consider ChatGPT to be an intelligent ‘hand calculator’ in the math and physical science classroom. Here is an example I came up with without much effort!

I. Student Pre-Requisite Knowledge

The following example requires students to work with Scientific Notation, calculating the volume of spheres and shells, and working with the mass:density:volume relationship.

II. Exoplanet Interior Modeling

Astronomers have discovered over 5000 exoplanets orbiting other stars. We call these ‘exoplanets’ so that they don’t get confused with the ‘planets’ in our solar system. From a careful study of these exoplanets, astronomers can figure out how long they take to orbit their stars, their distance from the star, their diameters and their masses. How do they use this information to figure out what the insides of these exoplanets look like? This activity will show how a simple knowledge of mass, volume and density provides the clues!

III. Mass, Density and Volume

Mass, volume and density are related to each other. If two things occupy the same volume but have different masses, the less-massive one will have the lower density.

Density = Mass / Volume.

Example 1: A Prospector had his sample weighed to be 20 grams, and its volume calculated by water displacement and found to be 4 cubic centimeters. If pure gold has a density of 19.3 gm/cc, is his sample actually gold or is it iron pyrite (density 5.0 gm/cc)?

Answer:   Density =  20 gm/4 cc =   5 gm/cc   so it’s iron pyrite or ‘Fools Gold’.

Example 2: A basic principle of physics is that light things of low density float on top of denser things. Why do you have to shake a bottle of salad dressing before you use it?

ChatGPT Query: There are five different liquids mixed together in a bottle. After 10 minutes they sort themselves out. The liquids are:   Olive oil ( 0.92 g/cc ), water ( 1.0  g/cc), molassis ( 1.4 g/cc) , vinegar ( 1.0006 g/cc), honey (1.43 g/cc). From bottom to top, how will the liquids separate themselves?

IV. Designing Mercury with a One-Component Interior Model

Mercury was formed close to the sun where only iron and nickel-rich compounds could condense into a planet. Let’s model Mercury and see what we discover. The actual mass of Mercury is 0.055 times Earth.

Step 1 – Use the formula  for the volume of a sphere V=4/3 pR³ and with a known radius for Mercury of Rm = 2.43×10⁶ meters to get the volume of the planet of V = 6×10¹⁹ m³.

Step 2 – Calculate the mass of Mercury for various choices of density. Give the predicted mass for Mercury in multiples of Earth’s mass of 5.97×10²⁴ kg.

Step 3:  Test your knowledge: For a density of 5000 kg/m³ and a radius of 2.43×10⁶ meters, what is the mass of Mercury for these selected values? Give your answer to two significant figures.

Volume = 4/3p (2.43×10⁶meters)³     =  6.0×10¹⁹ m³

Mass = 5000 x Volume =  3.0×10²³ kg

Mase(Earth units) = 3.0×10²³ kg /5.97×10²⁴ kg  = 0.05 times Earth

Use ChatGPT to generate data for plotting. Enter this question into the window:

ChatGPT Query: A sphere has a radius of 2.43×10^6 meters. What is the mass of the sphere if its density is 5000 kg per cubic meter? Express your answer in units of Earth’s mass of 5.97 x 10^24 kg. Give your answer to two significant figures.

Repeat the ChatGPT query four times to generate a mass estimate for densities of 4000, 4500, 5000, 5500 and 6500 kg/m³. Plot these points on a graph of mass versus density and draw a line through the values. Which density gives the best match to the observed mass of Mercury of 0.055 Mearth?  (Answer: about 5500 kg/m3).

V. Designing Mars with Two-Component Models

Now we add two components together for planets that have a high density core and a lower density mantle. These would have formed farther out than the orbit of Mercury but with masses lower than than of Earth. The mathematical model consists of a spherical core with a radius of Rc, surrounded by a spherical shell with an inner radius of Rc and an outer radius of Rp, where Rp is the observed planetary radius.  Mathematically the model looks like this:

M = Dc x 4/3p Rc³ + Dm x 4/3p ( Rp³ – Rc³)

Draw a diagram of the planet’s interior showing Rc and Rp and confirm that this is the correct formula for the total mass of the planet where Dc is the core density, and Dm is the mantle density.

Test Case: An exoplanet is discovered with a mass of 5.97×10^24 kg and a radius of 6,378 kilometers. If the radius of its core is estimated to be Rc = 3,000 km and its core density is 7000 kg/m3, what is the average density of the mantle material?

Vc = 4/3p Rc³  =   4/3p (3000000m)³ = 1.1×10²⁰ m³

Vmantle = 4/3 p Rp³ – Vc  =  1.1×10²¹ m³ – 1.1×10²⁰ m³ = 9.8×10²⁰ m³.

Solve equation for Dm:

Dm =  ( M – Dc x Vc ) /Vm

Dm = (5.97×10²⁴ – 7000 x 1.1×10²⁰)/9.8×10²⁰ =  5300 kg/m³

Check your answer with ChatGPT using this query. A planet consists of a core region with a radius of Rc and a mantle region extending to the planet’s surface at a radius of Rp. If the planet is a perfect sphere with a radius Rp = 6378 km and Rc = 3000 km, with a total mass of 5.97×10^24 kg, for a core density of 7000 kg/cubic meters, what is the average mantle density? Give the answer to two significant figures.

Now lets use ChatGPT to generate some models and then we can select the best one. We will select a mantle density from three values, 2000, 3000 and 4000 kg/m3. The core density Dc will be fixed at Dc = 9000 kg/m3. We will use the measured radius for Mars of Rp = 3.4×10⁶ meters, and its total mass of Mm = 6.4×10²³ kg. We then vary the core radius Rc. We will plot three curves on a graph of Rc versus Mm one for each value of the assumed mantle density. Use this ChatGPT query to generate your data points.

ChatGPT Query: A planet is modeled as a sphere with  a radius of Rp=3.4×10^6 meters. It consists of a spherical core region with a radius of Rc surrounded by a spherical shell with an inner radius of Rc and an outer radius of Rp. The core of the planet has a density of 9000 kg/cubic meters. The radius of the core Rc = 30% of the planet’s radius. If the density of the mantle is 2000 kg/cubic meter, what is the total mass of the planet in multiples of the mass of Earth, which is 5.97×10^24 kg? Give your answer  to two significant figures?

Repeat this query by changing the mantle density and the core radius values and then plot enough points along each density curve to see the trend clearly. An example of an Excel spreadsheet version of this data is shown in this graph:

This graph shows solutions for a two-component mars model where the mantle has three different densities (2000, 3000 and 4000 kg/m3). The average density of mars is 3900 kg/m3. Which core radius and mantle density combinations seem to be a better match for Mar’s total mass of 0.11 Mearth for the given density of the mantle?

VI: Modeling Terrestrial Planets with a three-component interior.

The most general exoplanet model has three zones; a dense core, a mantle and a low-density crust. This is the expected case for Earth-like worlds. Using our Earth as an example, rocky exoplanets have interiors stratified into three layers: Core, mantle, crust. 

Core material is typically iron-nickel with a density of   9000 kg/m3

Mantle material is basaltic rock at a density of 4500 kg/m3

Crust is low-density silicate rich material with a density of 3300 kg/m3

The basic idea in modeling a planet interior is that with the three assumed densities, you vary the volume that they occupy inside the exoplanet until you match the actual mass (Mexo) in kilograms and radius (Rexo) in meters of the exoplanet that is observed. The three zones occupy the radii  Rc, Rm, Rp

We will adjust the core and mantle radii until we get a good match to the exoplanet observed total mass and radius. Let’s assume that the measured values for the Super-Earth exoplanet mass is Mp = 2.5xEarth = 1.5×10²⁵ kg,  and its radius is Rp = 1.5xEarth = 9.6×10⁶ meters.

Core Volume  Vcore = 4/3p Rc³

Mantle Volume  Vm = 4/3 p (Rm³ – Rc³)

Crust Volume   Vcrust =  4/3 p (Rp³ – Rm³)

So the total Mass = (9000 Vcore + 4500Vm + 3300Vcrust)/Mp

Rc ,Rm and Rp are the core, mantle and planet radii in meters, and the total mass of the model is given in multiples of the exoplanet’s mass Mp.

Let’s do a test case that we work by hand to make sure we understand what we are doing.

Choose Rc = 30% of Rp and Rm = 80% of Rp. What is the predicted total mass of the exoplanet?

Rc = 0.3 x 9.6×10⁶ meters =  2.9×10⁶ meters.

Rm = 0.8x 9.6×10⁶ meters =  7.7×10⁶ meters.

Then

Vcore =  4/3p (2.9×10⁶)³ = 1.0×10²⁰ m³

Vm =  4/3p ( (7.7×10⁶)³ – (2.9×10⁶)³) =  1.8×10²¹ m³

Vcrust =  4/3p ((9.6×10⁶)³  – (7.7×10⁶)³) =  1.8×10²¹ m³

Then  Mass = (9000 Vcore + 4500 Vm + 3300Vcrust)/Mp

Mass = (9×1023 kg + 8.1×1024 kg + 5.9×1024 kg)/1.5×1025 kg  =  1.0 Mp

Now lets use ChatGPT to generate some models from which we can make a choice.

Enter the following query into ChatGPT to check your answer to the above test problem.

ChatGPT Query: A spherical planet with a radius of Rp consists of three interior zones; a core with a radius of Rcore, a mantle with an inner radius of Rc and an outer radius of Rm,  and a crust with an inner radius of Rm and an outer radius of Rp=9.6×10^6 meters. If the density of the core is 9000 kg/m^3, the mantle is 4500 kg/m^3 and the crust is 3300 kg/m^3, What is the total mass of the planet if Rc = 30% of Rp and Rm = 80% of Rp? Give your answer for the planet’s total mass in multiples of the planet’s known mass of 1.5×10^25 kg, and to two significant figures.

Re-run this ChatGPT query but change the values for the mantle radius Rm and core radius Rc each time. Plot your models on a graph of   Rc versus the calculated mass Mp on curves for which Rm is constant. An example of this plot is shown in the excel spreadsheet plot below.

For example, along the black curve we are using Rm=0.8. At Rc = 0.5 we have a model where the core extends to 50% of the radius of the exoplanet .The mantle extends to 80% of the radius, and so the crust occupies the last 20% of the radius to the surface. With densities of 9000, 4500 and 3300 kg/m3 respectively, the Y-axis predicts a total mass of about 1.1 times the observed mass of the exoplanet (1.00 in these units). With a bit of fine-tuning we can get to the desired 1.00 of the mass.    But what about the solution at (0.3, 1.00) ? In fact, all of the solutions along the horizontal line along y = 1.00 are mathematically valid.

Question 1: The exoplanet is located close to its star where iron and nickel can remain in solid phase but the lower density silicates remain in a gaseous phase. Which of the models favors this location at formation?

Answer: The exoplanet should have a large iron/nickel core and not much of a mantle or crust. This favors solutions on the y=1.00 line to the right of x=0.5.

Question 2: The exoplanet is located far from its star where it is cool enough that silicates can condense out of their gas phase as the exoplanet forms. Which of the models favor this location?

Answer: The exoplanet will have a small iron/nickel core and a large mantle and crust. This favors models to the left of x= 0.5.

So here you have some examples for how ChatGPT can be used as an intelligent calculator once the students understands how to use the equations and is able to explain why they are being used for a given modeling scenario.

I would be delighted to get your responses and suggestions to this approach . Just include your comment in the Linkedin page where I have posted this idea.