G is the planetary constant of attraction

No it's not. It's the universal gravitational constant. Nothing planetary about it. It's the constant of attraction between any two masses.

It's stupidly small, and has some totally daft units:

G = 6.672x10^-11 N m^2 kg^-2

See:
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/GravitationalConstant.html

In reply to:

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[G is] stupidly small, and has some totally daft units:

G = 6.672x10^-11 N m^2 kg^-2

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Au contraire, the units make a lot of sense. The force is proportional to the product of the two masses you're considering, and inversely proportional to the square their separation. So, multiply G by two masses (kg^2) and divide it by the square of the distance (m^-2), and lo&behold, you end up with a number of newtons - just as you'd expect for a force.

Dimensional analysis, lesson one.

Dimensional analysis, lesson one.

Oh, I can do dimensional analysis. Many moons ago, I even managed to pick up a Physics A-Level.

My point is: "square kilograms"?

I know why, it's just hard to visualise.

Ah, another convient unit of measure. Just like every constant K in the world of chemistry and physics. Isn't it neat how they all just HAPPEN to cancel out all the unnecessary units you don't need? Damned if I could think of one right now though since I haven't used them in 6 years.

My point is: "square kilograms"?

It always sat uneasily with me, doing F=Gm1m2/(r^2) at A-level, that the LHS is clearly vector while the RHS is equally clearly scalar unless you cheat by multiplying by r-hat.

Peter

Edit: r-hat, not |r|.

Hell this is way too complicated ...

I just emailed support and TNT are picking it up on Monday. What could be simpler ! Thanks Guys