i realize that the human population is much larger then it was say, 2000 yrs. ago. does that mean the earth weighs more? i know there's no weight in space, but just in theory. also, the astronauts don't count, they'll just mess it up.
2007-07-08 05:34:24 · 17 answers · asked by Ashley W 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
but what happens to the fuel we burn ie coal or wood? if you burn a 5 lbs piece of wood, you don't generate 5 lbs. of ash, and if the wood burns clean it won't generate much smoke
2007-07-08 05:57:44 · update #1
No. The Earth is not getting heavier due to the growth of the human population because we aren't creating new matter from nothing as we grow - we are consuming what already exists on this planet.
2007-07-08 05:38:39 · answer #1 · answered by eri 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
humans or any materialistic creation in the world will obey the second law of thermodynamics. It can be stated in the following way " In the process of making complex molecules from simple ones, some amount of usable energy is lost as heat ". Humans, being made from the earthly resources, therefore, must have consumed more than what they weigh. This would lead to loss of earth's weight in the last 2000 years. But, the earth keeps receiving energy from the sun for the last 2000 years. This would add to its weight. a measure of these two processes will tell us the change in earth's mass. this should solve one part of the question.
i don't know about the effect of weight on the rotation of an object.
2007-07-08 06:24:15 · answer #2 · answered by velu 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most of the above answers shouldn't have any negative votes because most are correct. People aren't created from nothing - we're literally made from the Earth. Our bodies are made up of the food that we've eaten. Consider this: if I eat one pound of food, that doesn't mean that the Earth got one pound heavier. The planet's mass simply was redistributed.
Conservation of matter (a basic scientific precept) also applies to combusion. Matter is not destroyed in combustion; again, it is rearranged. A piece of burning wood will be converted into ash and gases (especially carbon dioxide and water vapor). The mass of the Earth doesn't change - again, it's simply redistributed. No matter is destroyed in the process. Even with clean-burning wood, the wood is simply converted into invisible gases (water vapor and carbon dioxide), so not much smoke is visible.
2007-07-08 06:21:16 · answer #3 · answered by clitt1234 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
everything is recycable. The wood that you are talking about is, if you burn it then it becomes smoke and the rest of it is burned up wood. But don't you think that the wood grows from the ground. When a person is born rhen their body needs food to survive. People take that food from the ground.
The only way earth grows is by astroids hiting the Earth. The Earth is always getting bigger and bigger because there are astroids hitting the Earth.
By the way: Good question.
2007-07-08 06:24:47 · answer #4 · answered by Soccermaster 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Humans are made of Earth, literally. All life on Earth is made of the same atoms that have been on Earth since it was first formed. Your body is made of the atoms you eat, drink, and breathe.
The mass of the Earth doesn't change appreciably (apart from a few tons of dust falling from space each year) with time. Furthermore, if the average human has a mass of 60 kilograms, and there are 6.6 billion humans, the total mass of all humans is only...
8.7 * 10^11 kilograms
The mass of the Earth, however, is much larger:
6.0 * 10^24 kilograms
It becomes clear that humans are an insignificant fraction of the Earth's mass.
2007-07-08 05:44:34 · answer #5 · answered by lithiumdeuteride 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Consider this: The mass needed to make those extra humans didn't come from nowhere. It came from the Earth. The matter of which every human being is composed was already here on Earth.
The amount matter on Earth is pretty much fixed; it won't change no matter how many humans we make. You can rearrange molecules to make earth and air into people, and vice versa, but the overall "weight" is going to be the same.
2007-07-08 05:41:57 · answer #6 · answered by stork5100 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Soccermaster is right. The Earth IS constantly getting heavier due to new material falling on us from space. Mostly dust and meteorites that burn up before they hit the ground.
2007-07-08 08:44:14 · answer #7 · answered by hellyeah 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
no
if anything the earth is getting smaller. when we grow we consume things already on the planet. so where not making matter, its just changing into different forms. We are losing a minimal amount of matter by sending things up to the space station and sending probes to mars and so. so again the answer is no, the earths mass is not getting bigger.
2007-07-08 05:44:49 · answer #8 · answered by brainguy222 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, because it is the weight to mass ratio due to the core of the planet and the pull of the moon at the same time. The moon actually slows us down a bit, but not much.
2007-07-08 05:55:12 · answer #9 · answered by 831 jen 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. It however, has little to do with Earth's mass or anything of the sort. Earth spins on a access with gravitational force acting on it. It has equal force spread all around. Thus, it is all counteracted by itself. Therefore, the Earth maintains its consistant rotations and revolutions.
They have measured an approx. weight of the Earth. You can find that here. http://science.howstuffworks.com/question30.htm
2007-07-08 05:43:51 · answer #10 · answered by Mr. Keating 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋