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Is the earth growing?

Beer BellyBeer Belly Member Posts: 183 ✭✭✭
edited September 2006 in General Discussion
Is the earth getting larger?
By how much?
Is it enought to change gravity?
What about other planets?

That time travel post got me thinking, which always is trouble.

Let me start with a few random thoughts, statements, etc:

1) When you look at the grand canyon, etc., you can see stratification layers. The layers on top are the youngest.

2) Fact: matter can neither be created or destroyed.

Are all of these layers a result of the photons that the plants capture? Plant captures a photon, converts it to energy, grows, dies, more soil.

EDITED - Forgot to add this. How can a photon not not be a particle with mass if it has been responsible for so much matter created on Earth?

Comments

  • n/an/a Member Posts: 168,427
    edited November -1
    To strenuoius for my brain!!!!!!!![:D][:o)][:(][;)]
  • tsavo303tsavo303 Member Posts: 8,891 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    you need to take a geology class, 1st class I enjoyed
    layers are there, rivers carve out so you can see strata, its not like it is raining dirt
    Plants mass is a cycle with the soil and air
  • bgjohnbgjohn Member Posts: 2,275 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Cosmic dust!
    JM
  • tsavo303tsavo303 Member Posts: 8,891 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    yeah, but we are launching crap into sapce too!
  • Da-TankDa-Tank Member Posts: 4,074
    edited November -1
    Hey now that crap costs us millions of dollars!!!
  • chris_cechris_ce Member Posts: 1,608 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Why can't matter be destroyed? What happens when you burn a log?
  • n/an/a Member Posts: 168,427
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Da-Tank
    Hey now that crap costs us millions of dollars!!!

    Yea, and all we have gotten are a few moon rocks.

    I wonder if I collected some rock if the government would give me 1 million. It would be a savings![:D]
  • Beer BellyBeer Belly Member Posts: 183 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The wood that is "gone", is converted to CO2.
  • buschmasterbuschmaster Member Posts: 14,229 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    the earth captures photons.

    photons are converted into mass by the plants.

    the gain in mass makes the earth heavier.

    the heavier earth gets pulled towards the sun by gravity, making the orbit smaller.

    the smaller orbit makes the earth get more photons.

    by the way, the earth is only 6000 years old.

    [;)]
  • mowartmowart Member Posts: 1,392 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Photons have Mass? They're Catholic?
  • He DogHe Dog Member Posts: 50,947 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:1) When you look at the grand canyon, etc., you can see stratification layers. The layers on top are the youngest.

    2) Fact: matter can neither be created or destroyed.

    Are all of these layers a result of the photons that the plants capture? Plant captures a photon, converts it to energy, grows, dies, more soil.


    1. Correct.

    2. Incorrect matter can be created and destroyed. Energy cannot.

    3. lots of stuff falling out of the sky has mass. meteorites and meteroettes to name but two.


    Bushmaster you have just set science on this board back by 300 billion years.[:(]
  • gclmemgclmem Member Posts: 346 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The third tape of the set of 3 from R W Felix "IceCycles" credibly speculates on the growing earth.
  • warriorsfanwarriorsfan Member Posts: 1,061 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Beer Belly
    EDITED - Forgot to add this. How can a photon not not be a particle with mass if it has been responsible for so much matter created on Earth?



    A photon is just a packet of energy, it has no mass. It is not responsible for "creating" matter, the energy from the photon is used to drive photosynthesis, which combines carbon dioxide and water to create sugar and oxygen. No new mass is created, existing matter is simpy rearranged into a more complex and higher energy state using the energy supplied by the photon.
  • pickenuppickenup Member Posts: 22,844 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I don't know if the earth is growing, but my staircase seems to be.
    It keeps taking longer and longer to get to the top. Whew......
  • mowartmowart Member Posts: 1,392 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The Earth, like the other 8,9 or 12 planets, is still cleaning up its orbit. Thousands of meteorites add to the Earth's mass every day.
  • Smokeeater 38Smokeeater 38 Member Posts: 2,735
    edited November -1
    We need to put the Earth on a diet. [:p] [:p] [:p] [:p]
  • mrseatlemrseatle Member Posts: 15,467 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Good Info...
    Hopefully we'll all learn to get along before this boat crashes into the Sun!
  • Beer BellyBeer Belly Member Posts: 183 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by warriorsfan
    quote:Originally posted by Beer Belly
    EDITED - Forgot to add this. How can a photon not not be a particle with mass if it has been responsible for so much matter created on Earth?



    A photon is just a packet of energy, it has no mass. It is not responsible for "creating" matter, the energy from the photon is used to drive photosynthesis, which combines carbon dioxide and water to create sugar and oxygen. No new mass is created, existing matter is simpy rearranged into a more complex and higher energy state using the energy supplied by the photon.


    Then how do solar sail work in space?
  • warriorsfanwarriorsfan Member Posts: 1,061 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Beer Belly
    quote:Originally posted by warriorsfan
    quote:Originally posted by Beer Belly
    EDITED - Forgot to add this. How can a photon not not be a particle with mass if it has been responsible for so much matter created on Earth?



    A photon is just a packet of energy, it has no mass. It is not responsible for "creating" matter, the energy from the photon is used to drive photosynthesis, which combines carbon dioxide and water to create sugar and oxygen. No new mass is created, existing matter is simpy rearranged into a more complex and higher energy state using the energy supplied by the photon.


    Then how do solar sail work in space?




    From the transfer of photon momentum per unit time and unit area to the solar sail. Light, like all forms of radiation, exerts pressure on the surface of anything it strikes. Solar sails operate by reflecting photons, which creates thrust due to the pressure exerted on the sail by the reflected photons.
  • Red223Red223 Member Posts: 7,946
    edited November -1
    They say energy can not be created or destroyed.


    Anti-matter is energy and we can currently create it and destroy it by exposing it to matter.


    The Earth has a molten core and when it erupts to the surface the surface receives more matter from the eruption and ash but somewhere's else has to sink to replace the matter that was spit out.


    I'm on an island that is bulging upwards from a gas pocket/magma under the colliding tectonic plates but eventually this island will sink as the pressure is relieved underneath the plates just as all the other islands have as the tectonic plate moves along.

    Gravity will change when the poles swap places some time in the not so distant future. When that happens the tectonic plates will be doing some major shuffling around and mankind will see a extinction level event from storms, volcanoes, and tsunami's...rivers will change courses and coast lines will be redrawn.
  • scottm21166scottm21166 Member Posts: 20,723
    edited November -1
    it is loosing its gravitational pull on the moon which is moving futher away. the sun is growing and will eventually engulf the entire solar system (billions of years from now)
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