The Earth getting heavier

[kwicky]

I read last week that the Earth attracts thousands of tons of debris hitting us from outer space. Over time this must make a considerable addition to the mass of the Earth. Does this have any effect of changing the speed or rotation of the Earth?

[andrea81]

Depends, is it a ton of light fluffy debies or a ton of huge chunks?

Sorry having a funny 5 minutes!

[squarebear]

I wouldn't have thought it would make any difference to the rate of the Earth's rotation or speed, as it would be like trying to slow down a high speed train by throwing a pebble at it.

[jackthehat]

If you can hit the driver in the eye, I've found that often works !!

[jake-the-peg]

Top end estimate is for the Earth to attract 100,000 tonnes per year.

The Earth has a mass of 6x10^21 tonnes so what's that a gain of 1.7x10^-17% ?

Probably about the equivilent of a gyroscope picking up a speck of dust

[kwicky]

Thanks for your reply Jake. I think your mass of the Earth is incorrect. I believe it to be 6 x 10^26 kg but still huge

http://hometown.aol.co.uk/__121b_/noQ8ivSvfoT7 dUuiReC87TfH3ZybESx+DcEFPb4gjm0oR4Jhg3dkQ==

[kwicky]

sorry 6 x 10^24 kg so therefore 6 x 10^21 metric tonnes.

[SteveD]

"According to data from the CIA's 2005�2006 World Factbooks, the world human population currently increases by 203,800 every day.[8] The 2007 CIA factbook increased this to 211,090 people every day." (Source: Wikipedia)

If each of those babies weighs 3kg, then the Earth is increasing in "weight" by some 633 tonnes per day or 219,000 tonnes per year.

As this increase in population will be taking place unevenly over the surface of the Earth, when will it start to wobble?

[kwicky]

SteveD if you take the human population, calculate the weight of the food we eat and subtract the expelled contents would this make up for it?

[crazy legs]

SteveD, you cant just get mass out of nowhere. The mass gained by people is lost by the earth - as said in the previous ansr.