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Since each day we are illuminated by the sun, plants convert that energy into glucose etc does this indicate an increase in mass of the earth if losses due to heat radiating out and gains such as meteors are ignored?
Plants don't convert sunlight into food by E=mc^2
The cellulose and plant structure should weigh less than the constituent CO2 and H2O, but the difference is going to be very small, probably in the ppb range since the bond energies are on the order of eV, not MeV or GeV.So, the real question is if CH2O and O2 weigh more than CO2 and H2O.
Will have to check this out later...
The photosynthesis (Calvin) cycle isThe cellulose and plant structure should weigh less than the constituent CO2 and H2O, but the difference is going to be very small, probably in the ppb range since the bond energies are on the order of eV, not MeV or GeV.