If earth's size were larger, would it be it colder in every continent?

Question

I dont think that it was a coincidence that earth was about the right size for life to exist.

Answer 1

No, but the flat portions would be flatter.

Answer 2

I believe you are implying that the Earth is an ideal habitat for life. This couldn't further from the truth. Earth is actually a lousy planet for life to exist upon, and this is proven by the fact that the majority of the Earth's surface is largely devoid of anything but a smidgeon of life. The Earth is ~3/4 ocean and the open ocean generally does not support algae, much less other life. Algae in the ocean is confined to the far north and far south, as well as certain coastal waters. Otherwise the ocean is a "desert". Furthermore, much of the 1/4 of the Earth that is land is either too cold or too arid to support much in the way of life. Sure you can find an occasional cactus or tundra lichen here and there, but teeming with life? Forget it. The area of the Earth that is "Teeming with life" is 10-15% or so, no more. The fact that you and I focus most of our attention on this small amount does not detract from the fact that most of the Earth is a desert, par excellence.

Answer 3

There are scientists who believe that the Earth is heated somewhat internally from nuclear reactions due to the immense pressure at the core. If this is true a larger Earth would have more of this nuclear heating, and, therefore warmer, not colder continents.

On the other hand, there are those who claim that the pressure at the center of the Earth is 0.

Answer 4

I think it would actually be warmer since more of the sun's rays would hit the Earth. However, a larger Earth would change so many other factors that effect weather. The Earth's moon has a major effect on the Earth's weather and a larger Earth would cause more of a gravitational pull on the moon.

Answer 5

There is a very simple explanation for the answer of this question. The amount of Earth that is "visable" to the Sun effects the amount of sunlight that hits earth. The more Earth available to the sun the more heat that gets put into Earth's atmosphere. As Earth Gets bigger, the amount of sunlight to hit Earth increases, butthe amount of Earth that needs heating increases. So there really isn't a big change in temperature as a result.

Answer 6

Its not a coincidence.

Life exists here because its the right size.

But that doesn't mean its the right size so that life would exist here. It just means that of all the places in the galaxy, this is where life popped up.

Douglas Adams used to give this analogy:
Imagine a sentient puddle. The puddle examines the dirt it sits in and thinks 'WOW - this hole in the dirt is the EXACT right shape for me! Someone must have created it that way!'

Answer 7

1) All else the same, it would be warmer. The really hot core would be larger and there would be less surface area per unit volume to radiate the heat away. (cube-square law)

2) Your view of 'life' is entirely bigoted and biased toward the only life YOU know about. The earth didn't size itself to suit the life on it-- the life that developed did so in response to the existing conditions on earth......!

Answer 8

it would have to depend on the earth rotation speed if it were bigger and life on earth has a lot to do with the moon. If we didnt have the moon we wouldnt exist. the moon controls the tides and the weather

Answer 9

Possibly....if earth had been originally larger, it would have (maybe) set in an orbit farther from the sun, making us colder.
Otherwise, I don't beleive our radius, unless extremely different from the extant, would affect our climate....good question.

Answer 10

no evidence for that.
(But Earth grow larger every day.Hundred tones of space dust)

Answer 11

they have found more then a hundered extra solar planets in the milky way