Is the Earth getting heavier?

<...Would anyone share to shed some light on the issue?...>

Would that reduce the mass of that individual, then?

This is a good one for Jorrie.

If a ray meets the earth surface it will give its energy to the absorbing surface and this one will increase its temperature since its molecules/atoms have now a higher energy level and their movement will be more active.

The highest radiant power received on earth (value it is used to estimate solar panels productivity) is in the range of 1 kW/m². According to the equation you mention

M= E/c² thus for the mass in kg/h= 1.000 [W]/(3.000.000.000[m/s])^2 = 3.3 E-16 [kg/h/m²]

This is valid for a narrow zone near to the equator and only around noon.

If we consider the two movements of earth: 24 h periods and seasons then this rate is multiplied by two Cos functions which take into consideration the angles between the vertical and the solar ray. If the seasons effect is neglected then per 24h the mass is about 2.52 E-15 [kg]. This means that 1m² of earth will receive a mass of 1kg in 1.13 E12 years! (1,300,000,000,000 YEARS).

It is only an opinion.

"It is only an opinion."

But very cool :-)

Thanks

There is another reason the earth is getting heavier, human population is nearing 9 billion, when in the beginning (whether you think creation or evolution) there were zero people...

Where does the weight of population come? From space?

Even in the creationist approach humans were made with earth materials!

In fact the earth receives much more "weight" from the small meteorites coming continuously from the surroundings.

Babies from space! LOL but seriously, so when a baby is born, and further develops to full grown, no new mass develops? The mass already exists somewhere? And don't write back food...because that develops from smaller less mass material also...

I'd say it fluctuates with time. Right now we're getting heavier. We loose some mass in the form of energy out to space through radiation, and some mass is converted to energy in the nuclear reactions in the core, but not more than we receive by getting bombarded by objects from space. When we do loose mass, it's mainly from cataclysmic impacts (or perhaps super volcanoes)... such as the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, or as some theories go, the one that created the moon.

Matt,

Mass is conserved. Having babies adds no mass to the planet. Humans are mostly water, with a bit of carbon and minerals. Plants are mostly water with carbon. The materials that make a human or a plant are taken from the environment and used to build an organism. When a person poops or dies or breathes material is exchanged back to the environment, but the mass of the earth is conserved.

Again with the exception of solar influx and meteors etc as mentioned above.

Matt,

I can't make sense of your hypothesis. Though the human population has grown it has only used existing resources to do so. Therefore the mass contained in the larger huma population has only been relocated, net gain in mass=zero. In my opinion.

To the extent the temperature of the earth increases, the mass of the earth increases, because faster moving particles have higher mass.

There is probably some increase in mass and then a similar decrease iin mass upon the occurance of large solar flares. At the beginning of a large solar flare, increased pair production would occur, and taking some small amount of time before the positrons annialate themselves with and electron, this lag may result in an increase in mass early in the solar flare occurance, and a decrease as the radiation levels fall back to normal.

benbenben

What about all the thousands of spacecraft and satellites we've been sending OFF this rock for the last 60 or so years?

I realize that it's a small percentage of the total mass of Earth, but I suspect it could come close to being a wash for the same time period.

One meteor plunging into Earth adds more mass to our planet than thousands of years of extra radiation and we are bombarded with meteors by millions. If you have time to think better find out how many devils fit on the pinhead?

Kazik