[thedoc]

Is the Earth getting heavier? As the human population grows, are we putting on weight as a planet?

Asked by David Hubble, US


                                        Visit the webpage for the podcast in which this question is answered.

[chapter podcast=1215 track=08.10.12/Naked_Scientists_Show_08.10.12_2656.mp3]  ...or Listen to the Answer[/chapter] or [download as MP3]

[Don_1]

No. Matter can neither be created nor destroyed.

Each individual must consume food & water in order to grow. What we eat is either used for the growth of our bodies, energy to power them, then passed out as waste or passed straight through as waste. The total weight of our bodies cannot exceed that which we put in.

[blakestyger]

Don_1 is spot on but you could argue that if the loss of atmosphere to space has stopped then the Earth is getting imperceptibly heavier with the arrival of meteorites and other interstellar stuff that lands here.

[Don_1]

Yes, you could take the weight of such interstellar bodies and subtract the weight of space probes sent out by man, never to return, to arrive at a figure. But as you say it would be so infinitesimal by comparison to the weight of the planet as to be as to be imperceivable.

[Philip Feeley]

Don't the plants add mass from sunlight?

[Philip Feeley]

Don't the plants add mass from sunlight?

[phaz]

Sun light and photosynthesis. A plant will not grow without it. Energy added  E=MC² end of story!
We have been hit with photons for billions of years which are a part of an atom and has mass. How much energy has hit the planet over billions of years?

[Blumanfry]

http://gizmodo.com/5882517/did-you-know-that-earth-is-getting-lighter-every-day