As we burn oil, wood, coal, etc, does the earth become lighter and effect our orbit?

Answer 1

No, the mass goes into the atmosphere, which also has weight, and in fact while this is going on meteors from dust-speck size to the size of apartment building size constantly bombard the earth increasing the mass. However, it does change the solid mass of the physical planet, thus affecting planetary spin to a microscopic extent.

Answer 2

The mass change, through loss of energy as radiation into space, is trivial, but more important the mass of the Earth does not need to be a particular number for it to sustain its orbit, the critical factor is its velocity. Any size object at the Earth's speed and in its orbit would have the same falling rate around the sun, be it a planet or a man in a space suit.

Answer 3

The simple answer to this question is no. When we burn anything we are merely changing its form but not its mass. We are loosing mass through radiation and the solar wind. Lighter elements like hydrogen and helium work their way to the upper atmosphere and are lost to space or "blown away" by the solar wind. We are also gaining mass as particles and other space debris falls to earth both are (minuscule compared to the overall mass of the earth) in a relative state of balance. The radius of the Earth's orbit is increasing because the sun IS loosing mass as it sheds particles (as the solar wind) through radiation. Over time the strength of the sun's gravitational pull on the earth is weakening. Not to worry it is a slow process as the sun is very massive (compared to the earth). So our orbit is changing but not because of anything we have control over. Burn baby, burn.

Answer 4

you would think that burning all of these materials reduces the total weight of the planet; however, we are not actually eliminating matter when we burn fossil fuels. We are actually just converting a solid to a gaseous state and not actually eliminating any weight. The total weight of what we burned stays the same since it still has the same number of atoms total, but now they take up more space since they are in a gas state. They now occupy our atmosphere and still add to the total weight of the planet. Even if they ran off of nuclear fusion where atoms are actually turned into energy and weight is decreased, it is doubtful that it would have enough of an effect to affect our orbit.

Answer 5

No it does not.Due to the earths gravity,over time, the earth has consistently gained mass.Particles,meteors and asteroids coming in contact with the gravitational pull of the earth,have remained here.The burning of any type of matter on earth becomes a mass to energy transfer,both being dispersed amongst our medium,yet forever being held on earth because of gravity,resulting no weight change of the planet...Technically,the only thing that now can make the earth lighter,is when we send mass out of earths atmosphere into space...tom science

Answer 6

gravity's mass is relative to density when you burn anything do you change it's density...gravity is effected by masses density and energy can be created or it would not exist in the first place also factor light hydrocarbon and the magnetic field strength..also factor mass of light going into biology and becoming trapped.does that add mass/ gravity then factor orbit. Did Mars weight change when atmospheric weight was blown off due to lack of magnetic field? What does water weigh in gravity.....

Answer 7

Not exactly, the resulting products still remain in the atmosphere. However, experiments do show that the radius of the Earth's orbit is increasing steadily.

Answer 8

The mass does not change, niether does the orbit but it does slow down our rotation. Every time a big volcano blast or hurricaine occurs it drags across space and slows the Earth by a few nano-seconds. Pollution contributes to that drag.

Answer 9

No Matter is neither created nor destroyed also energy is neither created nor destroyed but matter can breakdown and release energy and energy can be stored as matter thus everything on earth was there when it began and is only in a different form.