Valerie Peatross, age 12, of Visalia.. Calif.., for her question:

How much does the world weigh?

When a person is sad and worried looking, we may say that he goes around with the weight of the world on his shoulders. If this is the kind of life you plan for yourself, then you should know what you would be taking upon yourself. This lovely old world of ours weighs six sextillion, 570 quintillion tons, give or take a few thousand tons.

In figures, the weight of the world is about 6,570 followed by 18 zeros. Thatts quite a load for anyone to carry around on his shoulders, Let's not jven try it. Actually, of course, our spritely old world manages very well without our help. It spins around on its axis every day and it rips around its orbit at 181 miles a second • without any help from any of us.