Weight of the world

[ngdw]

How Much Does planet earth weigh and is it getting more heavy or lighter

[trilobite]

The mass of the Earth is 5.9736x10^24 kg.

That's 5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000 tonnes

 

The Earth loses mass as lighter (less dense) gases escape from the atmosphere into space, and I would guess by radioactive decay as heavier elements decay to lighter elements and release energy (thus mass is lost as energy). The Earth gains mass by the amount of cosmic dust, meteorites etc that fall on the surface. I remember seeing a figure for the estimated annual tonnage but don't have it to hand.

Without having the exact figures, (or at least estimates), I can't say what the net loss / gain of mass is.

[trilobite]

Great minds... eh, ansteyg ?   ;o)

[brachiopod]

What's happened to my posts?

I posted a serious reply here  now its gone. Posts have gone from other threads aswell, but just mine.

What's going on? Am I being censored (or even censured)

The arthropod formerly known as trilobite.

[helghast]

trilobite mass is not lost as energy. there is a law in physics that states that energy is not made or destroyed.

[brachiopod]

That's Newtonian physics, Deamo.

In a nuclear reaction, mass is converted into energy.

That's what E=mc^2 is all about, forget relativity, it's telling you that mass can be converted into energy, and energy into mass.

 

[helghast]

e=mc^2 is not telling you that mass can be converted into energy, it shows how much energy an object can have e is energy, m is mass, and c is the speed of light in a vacuum. thats why the potential energy of an object is nearly infinite because the speed of light is so high.

 

in any reaction one type of energy is converted into another type of energy. in a nuclear reaction chemical energy is converted into nuclear energy.

[brachiopod]

"it shows how much energy an object can have "

 

?????? What does this mean?

'How much energy an object can have' by virtue of what?

 

The energy a mass can have by virtue of its motion (velocity, acceleration etc)  is given by Newtonian Physics.

E=mc^2 gives the 'energy an object has by virtue of its mass.

It's not saying the mass itself is travelling at the speed of light or any other given velocity.

 

Nuclear energy is NOT 'converted chemical energy'. Chemical energy is a result of making and breaking of chemical bonds between atoms.

Nuclear energy comes about as a result 'breaking' or 'making' atoms themselves.

Energy released in a nuclear reaction (fission or fusion) comes from the fractional amount of mass converted into energy. Nuclear changes convert matter into energy. The difference between the mass of the reactants and products is called the mass defect and it is converted into energy according  to the formula E = mc^2