Does the creation of life destroy E=mc2

Ok...1st off I know nothing about physics, biology, botony, anthropology or any science!

what I have pondered on for a while now though is that since Life on this planet stated to flourish, surely this planet has become heavier than it was before Humans were as prolific as they currently are.

Say there are 5.5 billion people on the planet and on average they weigh 120lbs(55kgs). This = 660,000,000,000 lbs or 660,000,000 tons.

So, 150,000 years ago (probably wrong lol) or so when Man started to evolve and there was only a couple of thousand Humans, did the planet still weigh the same?

What about all the extra animals that we now have, if nothing else but due to breeding to feed us. What about the fields of grain

In which case where did all this extra matter (us) come from if Matter cannot be either created or destroyed?

Please don't flame me though cause I'm not looking for an argument, just info....

Peace Out

But all life comes from the earth…literally. Humans and animals are what, 99% water, this water came from the earth. Same thing goes for the other 1%. In other words nothing has been added to the earth that wasn’t already there in the first place. It's just taken on a different form.






[edit on 22-3-2005 by kinglizard]

Everything comes from the sun. The plants make food from the sun, animals eat plants, we eat plants and animals. The rule of conservation of mass only works in a contained experiment, and since the sun affects us that does not apply.

Yep, we're literally a part of this earth. I think that's so cool.
The atoms of our bodies could've once been anything else that
was once here...
And when we die, it's back to this earth we go. Unless you've
been embalmed or mummified I guess.

Originally posted by Charlie Murphy
Everything comes from the sun. The plants make food from the sun, animals eat plants, we eat plants and animals. The rule of conservation of mass only works in a contained experiment, and since the sun affects us that does not apply.

This may be true, but if you try to calculate the balance of the radiant energy (light) received from the Sun vs what the planet is losing in infrared etc, and then convert it into the mass equivlent, that won't be much. I'm just too lazy to do the calculation.

On the other hand, the radioactive decay inside the planet (which provides the heat and melts the lava and such) leads to the nuclei constantly losing mass due to this energy release. Again, this is eventually released as infrared and leaves the planet.

Quite interesting.

The only 'new matter' that could have (or should have) entered earth is in the form of:

1.) Solar particles (which, over the course of a few billion years is insignificant)

2.) Interstellar matter bombarding earth (in the form of asteroids, particles from solar winds...etc)

E=MC^2 has nothing to do with reproduction of animals, it merely states that matter and energy are interchangable. For instance when you work out you convert the mass of part of your body into heat and chemical reaction.

We'd be screwed if it did. Everyone knows if you eat too much, you get fat. The food comes from food, other food, other food, and eventually grass, and then the sun. When you die you go right into the soil and become food for grass, and so on. Circle of life, yada yada yada, but more importantly Conservation of Matter. You cannot create nor destroy matter, or energy, for that matter, as the equation might imply.

Note: The m there counts as rest mass. Photons aren't at rest.

Thanks for taking the time to post on this thread guys...i'm learning some new stuff now and this is giving me significant leads to follow and research...although I must admit that much of this is over my head

But hey...given the opportunity we have, if we're not willing to challenge ourselves to further ourselves then we just fade away

P.S. if any of you have any specific links I can use...it would save me trawling around aimlessly.

Peace Out

all the life on earth is build from C-atoms with comes from CO2 in the air, it is converted by plants using sunlight to C and O2,

I think maybe the original poster was more pointing towards energy as a constant? Theorizing that since new life appears and then grows, we're getting more mass without expending the energy?

Just remember, to grow big and strong, those new animals have to eat! (take in energy), so it all balances out in the end (in theory)..

Earth actually gets heavier every day - meteorite's add significant mass to planet and it's not trivial e.g. tons per day (I thought the number was like 750 tons but I'd have to do a search)....

From a life standpoint, energy and mass are conserved, and while not a static system, energy in from sun and energy out do have to balance at the end of the day....

Originally posted by UofCinLA
Earth actually gets heavier every day - meteorite's add significant mass to planet and it's not trivial e.g. tons per day (I thought the number was like 750 tons but I'd have to do a search)....

Mass of the Earth approximately 6 x 10^24 kg
750 tons = 7.50 x 10^5 kg

6 x 10^24 + 7.5 x 10^5 = 6 x 10^24

It's trivial. That's an equivalent of 10,714 people at 70kg (154 lbs.) each.

Add it up over 4.5 billion years.... It has an effect, and even the daily totals add a miniscule but measurable delta in the orbital calcs....

Uhhh, No?

If a 750 tons asteroid hit everyday (which it most certainly doesn't) for 4.5 Billion years you'd have 3.375 x 10^13 kg, which is still 11 orders of magnitude off. If you calculate the forces involved between the sun and earth using simple newtons laws of gravitation, the additional mass over the entire span of earth would make no difference whatsoever.

Check yer math - that's was per day (if it is in fact that much):

7.5 x 10^5 * 365 * 4.5 x 10^9 = ~1.2 x 10^18

Even trivial matters in this stuff as it has an effect over time.... Granted sun also gets mass added as do the other planets. The orbital calcs are hairy when you get to a 10 body system and JPL has only done out to Neptune as it mattered for Cassini mission and even then they were off slightly and had to course correct en route....

The earth does in fact get heavier. Every day hundreds of pounds of debris fall from space.

As fas as life. The comment opening this thread is common. It is also a common way to gauge teh overall intelligence of this country. Most people would say...yeah..hes got a point.

Most people dont know squat about what humans are and where they came from. We are made from the very elements that make up eaqrth. When we die, we return to that earth. Nothing gained, nothing lost.

what we're mostly made of is Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen in varying amounts with other trace elements sprinkled in.

The mass of the earth is "constant" for most intents and purposes. The occasional asteroid would be about .0000000000something
of the earth's total mass, pretty insignificant.

same with the amount of matter from solar bombardment.

Also, the "extra matter" you speak of didnt just come out of no where, it came from the refinement of various raw materials like CO2 or H2O. Look at plants. They take CO2, water, and the energy from sunlight and convert it into (sucrose? glucose? the simplest sugar is what i mean).
keep doing this for millions of years, and you'll have made a sizable amount.

its not limited to plants. all animals process raw materials and make new compounds, be it urine and other excretement, or things like chalk and sea shells.

[edit on 23-3-2005 by ZetaGundam007]

Whoops! *kicks dimensional analysis* You're right about the day conversion, but it still doesn't really matter, the number pales in comparison to the earth's mass, 6 orders makes a huge difference in these calculations. The sun also burns a lot of mass to get a lot of energy, don't forget that.

In science - non-zero values matter. May not be statistically significant but in orbital cals, a non-zero value does have an effect, however small....

All I'm saying here is that in response to the opening post,Earth observes conservation of mass but our mass is not constant and is changing daily and while tiny, is non-zero and so must be accounted for in the orbital calcs....