# Is the Earth gaining weight?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-earth-gaining-weight/350698>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 31, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-earth-gaining-weight/350698 "2006-03-31T14:53:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-earth-gaining-weight/350698/21 "2006-04-01T07:15:10Z")

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Man, you guys are lucky for Cecil and me getting it 15 years ago…

> [@Cecil](#):
>
> It’s believed the earth gains anywhere from several dozen to several hundred tons per day due to meteorites and meteoritic dust–10,000 to 100,000 tons a year.

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**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-earth-gaining-weight/350698/22 "2006-04-01T13:50:33Z")

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> [@Bryan Ekers](#):
>
> Solar energy doesn’t bring about an increase in mass; it’s more like a welding torch. The energy allows plants to combine and break apart elements they couldn’t normally, just as welding together two 50lb blocks requires a torch, but the end result is still just 100lbs.

I beg to differ. Any reaction - chemical or nuclear - that produces energy will lose mass according to the E=mc[sup]2[/sup] formula. It just that in chemical reactions, the mass loss is negligible.

For nuclear reactions, the energy is considerable. For example, deuterium ([sup]2[/sup]H) has an atomic mass of 2.014101. It consists of one electron, one neutron, and one proton. When one atom of deuterium fuse with another, it forms helium ([sup]4[/sup]He), which has 2 electrons, 2 neutrons, and 2 protons; the total number of “parts” of the two deuterium atoms. But the atomic mass of helium-4 is 4.002603, which is 0.025599 atomic mass units less than the sum of the deuterium. This missing mass has been released as energy.

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**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-earth-gaining-weight/350698/23 "2006-04-01T14:45:43Z")

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> [@AWB](#):
>
> I beg to differ. Any reaction - chemical or nuclear - that produces energy will lose mass according to the E=mc[sup]2[/sup] formula. It just that in chemical reactions, the mass loss is negligible.

The differ by which you beg is a fraction of a rounding error, so while you’re technically correct that the plants gain mass, all the plant life on Earth over the last billion or so years may have gained less mass through solar energy than the collective mass of the irretrievable space probes humans have launched over the last 50 years.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-earth-gaining-weight/350698/24 "2006-04-03T23:24:54Z")

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> [@spingears](#):
>
> YES IIRC it is on the order of tons per year. You will have to consult an astronomer for factual data.  
> Not much.  
> Someone else may supply that estimate!

**spingears**. Please add factual comments to the thread. Suggesting that someone else can supply the estimate is **why** the poster is here. Looking for that someone.

Try to resist MPSIMS type posts.

**samclem**

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