Theoretical Question: Mass of Earth

[jmb88korean]

I was just curious about this. Are humans counted in the mass of the Earth? If so as the population increases does the masss of the Earth also increase? I think it wouldn't due to humans technecally being made from the Earth. We are carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen from the Earth so when we die we return to the Earth.

 

[Andrew Mason]

I was just curious about this. Are humans counted in the mass of the Earth? If so as the population increases does the mass of the Earth also increase? I think it wouldn't due to humans technecally being made from the Earth. We are carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen from the Earth so when we die we return to the Earth.

Generally, Genesis is not known as a reliable scientific source, but: "for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return" pretty well answers that question.

The only mass being added to the Earth is from cosmic rays, meteorites, occasional meteors and once every few million years the odd asteroid. It loses some mass from its atmosphere. But none of this makes much of a difference. The Earth's mass is about 6 x 10^24 kg.

You could add the entire population of the world (6 billion people x 100 kg = 6x10^11 kg) every year and it would take 10 trillion years (about 10,000 Earth lifetimes (1 Earth lifetime = 4 x10^9 years)) just to double the mass of the earth.

AM

 

[NobodySpecial]

The only mass being added to the Earth is from cosmic rays, meteorites, occasional meteors and once every few million years the odd asteroid.

And a fair bit of water from comets