Does the weight of the Earth change ?

Answer 1

Population increase.
CO2 emissions.
Meteorites/comets
Space dust/debris.
Solar energy.
Me thinks that's a yes...

Answer 2

Earth is ALMOST a closed system. What this means is that the vast majority of what is here stays here and the gains and losses to and from external sources is insignificant.

The birth and death of all and any type of life, even blue whales is irrelevant - they are part of the closed system. The evaporation and freezing of water are irrelevant, they are part of the closed system, a change in state does not lead to a change in mass! Change in surface temperature due to weather - irrelevant. Change in volume of the Earth, for whatever reason - irrelevant, a change in density does not involve a change in mass.

The 'major' inputs are 1) meteoric dust and 2) particles and energy from the sun.

Meteoric dust does add to the mass but in the same way that throwing a pebble into the sea causes the sea level to rise - NOT A LOT.

Energy input is at least equalled by energy loss - or global warming would be more than a problem on the horizon.

The main loss is gas and vapour from the upper atmosphere, roughly equivalent to the amount of material lost when a sparrow pecks at a diamond.

So the answer is - yes it does change - but not so's you would notice in less than the lifetime of the planet.

Answer 3

I would say just from a logical stand point the earth should be heavier on a day where the earths average temps are lower decreasing the evaporation rate and rainfall is greatest for the earth as a whole. Some combination of those factors along with lowered average wind speeds (responsible for stirring up dust) should contribute to a heavier earth. I'm sure it could be broken down even further but i think you get the idea........people in-flight in air travel should not be part of the equation unless you were actually going to weigh the earth, then for accuracy purposes that would need to be known so that it could be factored in........

Answer 4

Mathematically speaking, yes, it does. And what's changing isn't actually the weight, it's the mass that is changing (but because on Earth, the mass is almost equal with the weight, the two are interchangeable. Mass is defined as "the amount of matter in an object" while the weight is defined as "the gravitational pull of a body on an object." If you're in another planet, your weight would change but your mass would not.) The change in weight and/or mass is because of the continuous birth in the world. C'mon, it's just common sense, really: People are born on Earth, and people have mass so, the Earth does change its mass (and along with it, the weight also.)

Answer 5

I'll answer this with a question. Does the earth have any weight. Yes I know that dirt has weight, as well as other objects so it makes sense that there is a weight of thew earth. BUT if the earth weighs, then why or how can we just float in the middle of the atmosphere?

Answer 6

Umm.. it would take a *enormous* quantity of mass (weight is the tension of gravity upon the mass) to have any important result upon the orbit of the Earth. The Earth helpful properties sort of four or 5 a great deal according to day from meteors and comparable debris... and this makes a distinction of a few million/one hundredth of a million % of the Earth's mass - - over the 5 billion years 'lifespan' of the Earth

Answer 7

Question is does the "weight" of earth change? The question is NOT whether mass of the earth change? We know Earth is in the gravitational field of Sun in a state of dynamic equilibrium.
Weight of earth=mass of earth*acceleration due gravity of Sun.
We will now go in to details of these two factors.
With a dia of 7927miles at equator and a vol of1064*10^18 Met^3
total mass of earth (assuming experimental) average density of
5.515 metric tons/Met^3=approx 6*10^21Metric tons
There are two main factors affecting mass of the earth. First-Meteors,meteorites and cosmic dust entering earth's field. Most of these are destroyed due to air friction and burning.Second-Sun's radiation received minus Earth's radiation lost. We will assume that these are negligible compared to the gigantic mass of earth. Rest of the mass is constant due to law of conservation of mass only change of form from one state to other may occur.
Let us now come to the acceration due to Sun's field. We know the orbit is an ellipse. Earth obeys kepler's laws of planetary motion. As per second law its velocity vector sweeps equal areas in equal intervals of time. Therefore it goes faster when it comes near to Sun and slows down when it is farther off. Further the velocity vector is changing its direction all the time since it is moving in an elliptical orbit. Thus the acceleration due to gravity of Sun is changing all the time. Hence we can say the weight is changing as it is traversing the elliptical orbit. However we can say that weight when is nearest to Sun should be a little more than when it is farther off. To conclude in effect we can say that while the mass of the Earth remains almost the same its weight increases when it is nearest to Sun and reduces when it is farther off.

Answer 8

It depends, energy cannot vanish, so that is a constant. The water in the world melts and freezes, so that would change the weight too. New humans being born but then ones dying and decomposing, same for animals. I suppose space ships leave the planet...

Answer 9

the earth doesn't have a weight it's mass that it has, and it does change because of the particles that leave and come into the earth from the outer space.

Answer 10

If I had to guess I would say the earth gets heavier. energy from the sun gets trapped in the atmosphere, and a lot of that has weight.

Answer 11

the earth is gaining weight at an extemely slow rate. Due to cosmic material landing on the surface.