After rolling off the edge of the cliff and falling ' M ' meters down,
the speed of the boulder is
Square root of ( 19.6 M ) .
If M=111 meters, then the speed is <em>46.64 meters per second</em>.
We have known for roughly 500 years that if there's no air resistance,
the mass of the falling object makes no difference, and all objects fall
with the same acceleration, speed, time to splat, etc.
I believe it is lithosphere
Wow ! I understand your shock. I shook and vibrated a little
when I looked at this one too.
The reason for our shock is all the extra junk in the question,
put there just to shock and distract us.
"Neutron star", "5.5 solar masses", "condensed burned-out star".
That's all very picturesque, and it excites cosmic fantasies in
out brains when we read it, but it's just malicious decoration.
It only gets in the way, and doesn't help a bit.
The real question is:
What is the acceleration of gravity 2000 m from
the center of a mass of 1.1 x 10³¹ kg ?
Acceleration of gravity is
G · M / R²
= (6.67 x 10⁻¹¹ N·m²/kg²) · (1.1 x 10³¹ kg) / (2000 m)²
= (6.67 x 10⁻¹¹ · 1.1 x 10³¹ / 4 x 10⁶) (N) · m² · kg / kg² · m²
= 1.83 x 10¹⁴ (kg · m / s²) · m² · kg / kg² · m²
= 1.83 x 10¹⁴ m / s²
That's about 1.87 x 10¹³ times the acceleration of gravity on
Earth's surface.
In other words, if I were standing on the surface of that neutron star,
I would weigh 1.82 x 10¹² tons, give or take.