does the world get heavier as time goes on think hard about this one?

Question

we all started as a single cell & now weigh several stone,when cremated we turn to dust which i presume is lighter but where does the weight go does it just dissapear?I dont know the answer but i am covinced the planet is getting heavier because i dont believe that weight can just dissappear PLEASE Xplain this 2 me!!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

firstly, you cannot talk about weight when it come to the earth as weight depends on acceleration due to gravity, so lets talk in terms of mass.

the mass of the earth on average stays pretty much constant. yes we do start from a single cell and get bigger but the mass that we gain comes from food i.e. plant matter that was already on the earth or animals who gain their mass from plant matter on the earth.

the buildings that are built are made with materials that already existed here on earth. i.e sand from sand quarries, wood from forests.....etc.

however, the earth isnt a closed system. light and heat energy come into the planet from the sun (and other stars) but the earth also loses a lot of energy such as heat from deserts, light from fires and even street lights.

even with this gain and loss, the amout of mass/energy (E=MC^2) stays pretty much constant.

Answer 2

With the exception of light/fast gases like hydrogen, most particles on earth stay on earth (H2 can fly out into outer space, this is a big problem facing hydrogen fuel cell cars). Now, meteors fall to the ground and rockets fly off into space, but there is not a great change in our planets mass.

You see, everyone on earth could gain 200lbs but earth would maintain the same weight, you eat food from the earth. This all ties into the law of conservation of mass. We exist through a series of complex chemical reactions, but the molecules just exchange elementary particles like electrons and protons, changing their structure, not their mass or weight.

The same "stuff" is still here. Your carbon atoms were once the carbon atoms of dinosaurs, water you drink was once drunk by Spanish explorers, etc.

Now, what I find really cool is the fact the e=mc^2. So as energy increases mass increases. You have more mass going 60mph (kinetic energy) than when you are sitting still. You should also have more mass at the top of an office building than at the bottom (potential energy). Weird.

Answer 3

As a few people have said the earth is gaining weight from space debris like meteorites and space dust everyday but you could argue that it has got lighter since its creation as the moon was created from a chunk of earth spat out as a result of a collision.
The Giant Impact hypothesis holds that the Moon formed from the ejecta resulting from a collision between a very early, semi-molten Earth and a planet-like object the size of Mars, which has been referred to as Theia or Orpheus. The material ejected from this impact would have gathered in orbit around Earth and formed the Moon

Answer 4

It is always there, it is just in a different form. You are mainly water, so when you are cremated it turns to steam. It disappears, but it is still there!
You are made of some of the food you have eaten. It is in continual turnover, so you are not made of the same atoms now as you were 10 years ago.
The atoms bound up in you will leave your body, and other atoms will take their place. As you grow, you need more atoms to make you. They come from your food, which comes from the earth. Nothing is made or lost.

The planet can gain weight, but must get it from outside, ie meteors and meteorites. It can also lose weight to the outside, ie the Earth HAS lost most of its helium and a lot of its hydrogen.

Answer 5

Ok - we started very, very small, but mum ate loads of food during the nine months pregnancy, which is how you grew inside mum. The food grew from plants using up Earths existing resources, or animals growing as you did. Nothing added, and nothing taken away. You were born, you ate more food, and you grew. Everything came from Earth, nothing added, nothing taken away. The Earth remains the same "weight".

If you are cremated, you might well be left as a pile of dust, but apart from a few bits and pieces escaping in the smoke from the fire (ie still on Earth) you are still all there and no overall "weight" is lost.

The Earth can only change "weight" if things leave or come into our atmosphere/planet.

Answer 6

No, I doubt it. Eco-systems are cyclical and the Earth is in effect a closed system of finite resources and mass. All we do is convert one form of matter into another.

Consider metal extraction ? From 1 ton of metal ore we may produce ¼ ton of metal. The remaining ¾ ton will be made up of slag and waste and the gases that are produced they will have a set mass as well. ( I suppose the same applies to cremation - 2kg of assorted bone fragments and dust, 98kg of various waste gases and water vapour ... )

All organisms require food and drink of one kind or another in order to survive - and again, it's a simple case of converting matter (and mass) from one state to another. In our case, we convert carbohydrates, sugars, protiens, fats, minerals, etc into skin and bones et al.

Without sufficient 'matter' to convert, things die. They then decompose down to their constituents parts, are eaten by worms, etc.


:¬)


Addendum - wow omg does Amy not the win the " most over the top reaction of the day " award or what ??

Have you not not maybe thought that the school library is not open yet or that a certain ' tiny ' mind has not yet been introduced to particular concepts ??

:¬)))

Hmmmm .... maybe I'll go and ask next door's baby if it knows that matter can neither be created or destoyed ( even though it should actually be energy) or how quantum fluctuation could be the possible key to the creation of hetero-dimensional mini-universes within a particle-accelarator????

:¬p

Answer 7

Yes the earth is getting heavier all the time but it has nothing to do with the amount of people on the planet and how much they weigh as the available resouses will allow only what is already there.

It is the fact that there are dust and rock fragments falling from space onto the earth all the time which is making it heavier or to be correct more massive.

Answer 8

It gains no weight. the laws of particles and physics state that- under chemical reactions only- matter can neither be created nor distroyed. All of the matter that we are made up of was once other matter in the form of other life cells, minerals, atmosphere, water and photons from the sun. This energy has been changed into our cells. When we die that same ammount of matter we contain is the matter that remains. Our tissues die, the water in our bodies evaporates and our bones crumble. It may not look like much but it's the same ammount (yes, even if you are cremated) The energy is simply transfered to another source and gets used all over again.

Answer 9

U must have read somewhere about the Law of Conservation of Matter(mass). The increase in body mass- weight is simply the accumulation of chemical compounds[food] from the environment into your body. Once u are dead these compounds simply convert to other forms e.g. burning produces CO2 and other gases. So there can't be any increase on earth unless some materials are brought in from outer space.

Answer 10

Hair steel have been given replaced by pop music and the rap scene greater beneficial Thats what occurred to solid music,and merely because of the fact metals no longer common like it use to does not advise something is erroneous with it and quite interior the ninety's dying steel bands of all subgenres began stoning up,and as much as i like dying steel it develop into no longer meant for mainstream popularity thats the only ingredient combating the in many situations occurring of music from degrading maximum steel bands close out the mainstream and are strongly against merchandising out and discover it much less perplexing for the followers to return to them even if some promoting is finished that's to no longer the ingredient of media saturation. At no time could you pay attention any dying steel on the radio because of the fact a lot of human beings do no longer see that's inventive sound.you purely pay attention rap and pa on the radio because of the fact THATS whats common. Now a days it form of looks like further and extra human beings elect to take heed to music with man made beats made by a sequencer it relatively is elementary to bop to instead,of music which pours out emotion and has feeling to it.