can earth sink down?

Question

consider a gas filled balloon in the air.if we start filling heavy mateial,say mud,it will start sinking down.similarly,weight on the earth is increasing because of popullation,no.of buildings,vehicles and what not.can the earth sink down in the space?

Answer 1

First of all there are some misconceptions in your question. The earth's weight is not increasing in the way you suggest as all the materials used to produce the people, buildings and so on all came from the earth in the first place. The only way the earth can gain weight is if material comes from space to the earth.

Second, sinking is not caused by weight but by density - how that weight is packed into an amount of space. Take the example of an cruise liner - they are HUGE and have tremendous weight but still float. This is because they contain a lot of air inside and their overall density is lower that the water they sail in.

Third, where would you consider down in space? Down is a concept based on the force of gravity. In the case of the earth down is toward the center of the earth, but down in the northern hemisphere might be incomepltely the opposite direction to down in the southerm hemisphere.

So on one hand if by down you mean towards the sun, yes it is possible that an increase in the earth's weight might cause it to spiral down into the sun. That in itself is a complex question though and there are many things that would affect the orbit of the earth around the sun.

On the other hand parts of the earth do actually float and sink. The top or outer part of the earth that we live on is composed of the lightest (least dense) rock that floats on top of the other rock and magma that makes up our planet. The rock that makes the ocean floors is slightly more dense than the continents so sinks below the continents - that is why it sits lower and is filled in by the oceans. If more dense material comes to the surface through tectonic or volcanic activity then the heavier ( more dense) material can cause surface rock to sink. This process takes place very slowly though.

In summary - no, human population growth and activity will not cause the earth to "sink" in space towards the sun because they are not making the earth heavier, only rearranging the material that was already there.

Answer 2

Apart from all the other misconceptions from you, it amazes me that so many people like you cannot appreciate that up and down are Earthly things.

DOWN is towards the center of the Earth – the way the Earth’s gravity pulls you.

UP –is the opposite – directly away from the center of the Earth

Once you get away from Earth, these concepts are meaningless.

The Earth is a ball, a sphere, a globe. Do you not realise that?

It hangs in space, and from the perspective of space it has no top or bottom, just as a plain ball has no top or bottom.

Answer 3

You have a massive flaw in your base assumption. The earth is not getting heavier. All the buildings and pollution and everything else you are talking about was already on earth, just not in its current form. All of that stuff was pulled out of the ground in one form or another and has just been transformed into other materials.

Remember, mass can not be created or destroyed (unless it is converted to energy in a nuclear reaction). The only way you could add mass to the earth is by bringing it in from outer space.

Now, lets assume you do add mass from outer space. Where would we sink "down" to in space? If the mass of the earth increased, so would the gravitational attraction between the earth and the sun. If consider the direction to the sun to be down, then yes, the earth could sink down towards the sun if you added enough mass.

Answer 4

It actual would not. whilst the Coriolis tension is consistently credited for the certainty that water swirls down a drain, that is extremely vanishingly small different than with extremely great issues like hurricanes. you could teach this with an ordinary attempt: fill a sink with water and drain it; observe the path it spins in. Now fill it up back, and supply the water a sprint push in the different path in the previous draining it back. The water will spiral out any incorrect way. If the Coriolis tension became solid adequate to actual reason the swirling, then the act of shifting into mattress could set off dizziness and nausea. Does this ensue with you? no longer for me the two.

Answer 5

lets simplify these answers. Thecore of the earth is made of the heaviest materials nickle and iron because the sunk don there when the erth was all liquid rock about 4 billion years ago. so all the light stuff is at the top. so it will never sink because it is lighter .

And NICK he is talking about the crust srinking into the center of earth so relax OK

Answer 6

Of course, it does all the time in many places.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-06/11/content_338498.htm

P.S. Don't use the Shanghai railway.