Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.
Trending News
Will the mass of the earth be greater or lesser 100 million years from now. Ignoring outside factors such as meteors and satellites?
6 Answers
- AcerLv 66 years agoFavorite Answer
But the outside factors are the answer to the question.
Earth would gain mass by meteors and lose mass by satellite launches or any other "outside factor".
One cannot address changes to a closed system when it's not a closed system.
- Ray;mondLv 76 years ago
Answer depends on how you define "such as". No change in mass can occur in a perfectly closed system. Ionizing radiation will convert back to matter, increasing the mass of Earth a few parts per google per day. That is because the mass of radio active isotopes has been decreasing for trillions of days, except the few days that humans have exploded H bombs. With any definition the mass change is extremely small, and thus debatable.
- 6 years ago
I'm not sure how you can ignore meteors... they add tons of material daily to our planet. We tend to lose a bit of our atmosphere due to solar wind, but that's also an outside factor. I would guess we'd lose mass - ignoring the above...
- NicoleLv 56 years ago
Slightly smaller, since radioactive decay will transform some mass into radiation. That is, of course, if you don't consider that an "outside factor". Trees and plants don't produce mass; they are made from matter that was already there.
- How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
- 6 years ago
I always thought trees and plants growing and then dying would make the earth weigh more over time.