Originally posted by Astner
In what trajectory and in what time frame? It's in an elliptical balance around the sun, using the Earth's velocity to your advantage not much force is necessary to alter the orbit.But with a force of over
you could stop the Earth in its orbit and move it around freely, as long as you don't get too close to the sun.
For reference that's about 6.09 10^18 tons on Earth, so six quintillions, which is an order of magnitude less than sextillion.
Your equation is an nice exercise for physic classes but it lacks important variables.
The mass of an object increases the faster it moves. Considering this alone it's pretty obvious that Earth has a bigger mass when it moves then when it's "still". The faster you try to accelerate the mass the more force you need, the more it's mass increases. Till finally you would need an infinite amount of force to move a mass that is relatively speaking infinite as it apporaches the speed of light.
So, you need more force to stop earth against it's direction of movement then simply lifting it (Lift a heavy stone, catch it when someone throws it at you with 29,78 km/s). The force you need to stop it and it's mass are significantly greater. When you lift earths mass you move it for a short distance, when you accelerate it further it's mass increases and the force you need to increase its speed grows. Basic physics. The time frame and the speed you want to reach are important. If you want I can calculate it for you h18 style once I get home, but common sense and basic physical knowledge should be enough.
