[Mastrap]

Ok, I admit this is the sort of musing one normally comes up with after copious consumption of Jamaica's finest. In this case it was a couple of bottles of white consumed under the stars on the beach during the weekend.

Premise:

1. The earth is made from a finite amount of matter.

2. Everything that lives on earth is made from this matter. Plants take matter from the soil to grow. Animals eat plants to add matter to their bodies. We eat both plants and animals to grow and live.

3. We have a human population explosion on our hands. From humble beginnings we have now managed to overrun the planet.

4: All these humans are made of matter.

5. Earth must be minutely smaller than it was when there were no humans around. All the matter contained in humans has to come from somewhere.

Discuss should you feel so inclined.

[daimoni]

.

[wolfen]

Well, everything works basically in reverse of what you described.

The earth is a big gravity well sucking in all kinds of stuff from outer space -- there ain't too much going back out by comparison.

Hence, The Atmosphere.

Keep drinking and nothing "matters" for long...


wolfen

[MindFad]

[scaught]

Originally posted by daimoni:
More humans.

More poop.

More mass.

The Earth is getting bigger. And stinky.

:: puff ::

ya. but the poop has to come from somewhere.

[Mastrap]

Gravity. Damn. Forgot about that. I knew there had to be a fly in the ointment. So, we're growing?

I hasten to add that the couple of bottles were not consumed in solitude but by a group of people.

[daimoni]

.

[scaught]

Originally posted by Mastrap:
Gravity. Damn. Forgot about that. I knew there had to be a fly in the ointment. So, we're growing?

I hasten to add that the couple of bottles were not consumed in solitude but by a group of people.

food comes, poop goes, people get bigger. more and more people added to the human landfills. we're gonna end up knocking this sucker out of orbit.

[lil'babykitten]

Originally posted by daimoni:
More humans.

More poop.

More mass.

The Earth is getting bigger. And stinky.

:: puff ::

LOL!

[jtc]

Originally posted by wolfen:
The earth is a big gravity well sucking in all kinds of stuff from outer space -- there ain't too much going back out by comparison.

Don't forget sunlight. If I remember correctly from HS science class, something like 4 pounds of sunlight falls on the earth each day.

[benb]

Wouldn't it make sense to say that the earth, barring a few examples*, cannot lose mass? I mean, all that we consume stays here, just in different forms. We take rock and make statues. We eat food, but obtain energy by breaking down sugars and fats. The molecules are still there right?

So, it would seem that the earth, based on what others have said, is actually growing.

* Things like space travel, and fission.

[catsank]

Is earth getting smaller?

- no Mastrap your just getting further away from it.

[mitchell_pgh]

Like the others have said...

...there is a big orange ball in the sky... it's the sun...

[Judge_Fire]

While the atmosphere is warming the globe from the outside, there's also a steady increase in measured ground heat, warming us from inside.

Much of stuff takes up more space when warmer, so both these phenomena would expand the globe.

Then again, the atmosphere leaks into space all the time, leaving a tail of atmospheric gases, microbial life, moisture and other stuff behind. Which then eventually reaches other planets and contaminates/seeds life in them.

So yeah, hard to tell

J

[andreas_g4]

We don't consume (means: remove) matter. We convert it. I guess.

[ZackS]

Originally posted by jtc:
Don't forget sunlight. If I remember correctly from HS science class, something like 4 pounds of sunlight falls on the earth each day.

HAHAHAHAHA! Please don't spread this around. It might be funny here but before you know it, teachers will have to start teaching children that it isn't true.

[wataru]

Originally posted by jtc:
Don't forget sunlight. If I remember correctly from HS science class, something like 4 pounds of sunlight falls on the earth each day.

Yeah, but I'd be surprised if any of that were converted to matter, so it probably has little effect on mass. Besides, the earth radiates enough to be in equilibrium, so there shouldn't be any net change.

And hold on, people: Are we talking mass or volume?

[andreas_g4]

Originally posted by wataru:
And hold on, people: Are we talking mass or volume?

Mass. It's not too loud.

[engaged]

Sorry to be the one that has to be really dull and scientific, but it's laws of physics, etc, etc...

The Law(s) of Conservation of Matter:

Energy cannot be destroyed or created in the course of a reaction, and matter can neither be created nor destroyed in the course of a reaction. The total quantity of matter and energy available in the universe is a fixed amount and never any more or less.

[wolfen]

Originally posted by engaged:
Sorry to be the one that has to be really dull and scientific...
The Law(s) of Conservation of Matter:...

Scientific, yes. Relevant, no.


wolfen

[xi_hyperon]

Originally posted by andreas_g4:
Mass.

WTF does church have to do with this!?

[xi_hyperon]

Originally posted by engaged:
Sorry to be the one that has to be really dull and scientific, but it's laws of physics, etc, etc...

The Law(s) of Conservation of Matter:

Energy cannot be destroyed or created in the course of a reaction, and matter can neither be created nor destroyed in the course of a reaction. The total quantity of matter and energy available in the universe is a fixed amount and never any more or less.

So what happens to matter when it interacts with antimatter? I thought this destroyed both. I'm no scientist, so sorry if this is a dumb question.

[gerbnl]

Hmmm, you're forgetting humans are mostly water. So the Earth isn't getting smaller but the sealevel is getting lower...

Now, take into account the global warming driven rise of the sealevel and an outline of a solution of the rise starts to form...

[wataru]

Originally posted by xi_hyperon:
So what happens to matter when it interacts with antimatter? I thought this destroyed both. I'm no scientist, so sorry if this is a dumb question.

Supposedly the particle-antiparticle pair is converted to energy in the form of EM radiation, i.e. light, but not necessarily visible.

Don't forget your relativity: matter and energy are equivalent and can be converted from one to the other.

[Patrick]

Actually, the earth has lost some mass in the last 50 years, due to the invention of space travel. Stuff has been launched that wasn't made to return, like the various probes sent to Mars and elsewhere in the solar system. Stuff has been left on the moon, like that US flag they put up there in '59. Numerous satellites have been put earth's orbit. Not to mention various gases are emitted by spacecraft for propulsion, but I would guess much of it ends up falling back to earth.

All of this stuff is composed of matter that comes from Earth, so the planet has gotten a bit smaller. But then you have to take into account stuff that gets added to the earth's mass (meteors, gases space aliens, etc.), so who knows?

[ndptal85]

Other than the space junk lost everytime we launch a shuttle the Earth continues to gain mass. You see plants convert sunlight (energy) into mass (glucose) which is used to feed plants and make them grow and they are eaten by animals which are eaten by other animals. Plants are the only producers in the food chain. Every other organism is a consumer from animals, bacteria, fungi.....etc. There would also be no coal in the ground or no oil in the ground if it wasn't for sunlight. The plant and animal life that dies and accumulates wouldn't be there in the first place if it wasn't for sunlight. It does more than just warm the planet up you know!

[starman]

- Bad news, the fog is getting thicker.

- And Leon's getting laaaaaaaaarger.

[RGB]

No no no. You've got it all wrong. The earth just looks as if it's getting smaller, since my penis has grown to massive proportions, overshadowing the earth's mass.

[starman]

Originally posted by RGB:
No no no. You've got it all wrong. The earth just looks as if it's getting smaller, since my penis has grown to massive proportions, overshadowing the earth's mass.

That's your 'roids, dude. Sorry .

Mike

[memento]

Originally posted by Mastrap:
Ok, I admit this is the sort of musing one normally comes up with after copious consumption of Jamaica's finest. In this case it was a couple of bottles of white consumed under the stars on the beach during the weekend.

Premise:

1. The earth is made from a finite amount of matter.

2. Everything that lives on earth is made from this matter. Plants take matter from the soil to grow. Animals eat plants to add matter to their bodies. We eat both plants and animals to grow and live.

3. We have a human population explosion on our hands. From humble beginnings we have now managed to overrun the planet.

4: All these humans are made of matter.

5. Earth must be minutely smaller than it was when there were no humans around. All the matter contained in humans has to come from somewhere.

Discuss should you feel so inclined.

but all humans die and return their matter to the earth.

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by xi_hyperon:
WTF does church have to do with this!?

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by memento:
but all humans die and return their matter to the earth.

Dennis Leary disagrees.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by gerbnl:
Hmmm, you're forgetting humans are mostly water. So the Earth isn't getting smaller but the sealevel is getting lower...

Now, take into account the global warming driven rise of the sealevel and an outline of a solution of the rise starts to form...

The Weekly World News had a GREAT headline once:

"All Our Drinking Water Came From Dinosaur Wee-Wee!!!"

(almost as good as "Spacemen Are Killing Our Whales!")



-s*

[adamk]

volume-wise the earth is shrinking. latent heat from when the earth was formed is, and has always been, radiated into the atmosphere and then space. the amount of heat we receive from the sun is insignificant to the amount that comes from the earth. the shrinking comes from the fact that the cooler an object is the less space it takes up. i would hazard a guess that this loss of heat wouldn't really affect the size of the earth appreciably. think mm's or less.

mass-wise the earth is getting more massive. gravity, as mentioned earlier, is the main culprit of this, pulling in space matter (dust, rocks, etc) and the majority of our own man-launched satellites. other than the new (non-man made) material brought in, it is safe to say that everything that is here now, has been here for a long time. the second law of thermodynamics allows for that matter to be changed to/from various states. so yes, there is a good chance that any water you drink passed through the bowels of a dinosaur (even humans) many times.

in college, there was a question on a chem exam asking of all the molecules in caesar's last breath, how many are in the breath that you are taking right now. i forget the exact answer (4?), but it was a finite number.

adam

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by adamk:
so yes, there is a good chance that any water you drink passed through the bowels of a dinosaur (even humans) many times.

Sure. Considering the huge amounts of biomass that have existed over the past billions of years, it is very likely.

But turning something that is patently obvious and equally irrelevant into a shocking headline is still an admirable feat.



-s*

[jckalen]

Question

Does the earth's mass increase? Even in insignificant quantities?

Asked by: Jorge Luis Mendez

Answer

The Earth gains mass each day as a result of incoming debris from space. You may have even seen evidence of this activity in the form of a 'falling star', or meteor, on a dark night.

While the actual amount of added material depends on which study you look at, an estimated 10 to the 8th power kilograms of in-falling matter accumulates every day. That seemingly large amount, however, IS insignificant compared to the Earth's total mass of almost 10 to the 25th power kilograms.

In other words, Earth adds an estimated one quadrillionth of one percent to its weight each day. I don't know of any counteracting mass LOSS mechanism of any consequence.

Answered by: Paul Walorski, B.A. Physics, Part-time Physics Instructor

source: http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae75.cfm

sounds like a case for "getting bigger" but I'm no scientist myself

[nobitacu]

I hope not! I'm already small enough as it is! grrrrrrrr.....

Ming