Recent content by cliffe

I meant to imply remnants other than heat and work energy resulting from the combustion, assuming that the latter are not subject to gravity. But thanks for this, Russ - it's really an eye-opener for me! Over and out for this thread, Cliffe

(no pun intended)

Converting oil to ergs seems massively inefficient if there's so much mass left.

Have trouble understanding this. How much does a barrel of oil weigh after you burn it? What's the breakdown of gravity-bound remnants? MC2=E, but is E subject to gravity?

1 bbl crude = approx 0.136 tonnes 1 m3 coal = 1.2 tonnes 1 million m3 methane = 605.8 tonnes

Average global oil consumption in the 1990s was in the range of 80 million bbl/day, or 29.2 billion bbl/year.

Given the conceivably immense conversion of Earth mass contained in fuel substances, over the past century or so, to heat or other forms of radiant energy that eventually escape into space, is there any known calculation of mass loss attributable to this phenomenon? If so, how much is it...