question about earth weight loss....

does the weight a person loses simply disappear from the planet?

if a billion people lost a pound each, would the earth be a billion
pounds lighter?

sorry , i'm sure this will be considered an ignorant question but......
i am curious. alas, it is ignorant. i put it in the wrong place. sorry.

[edit on 13-2-2008 by last time here]

Well, some of the weight will be gone as it has been converted to heat, but most of it will be turned into poop.

Hmm, interesting question. I think the laws of conservation comes into play here, since weight loss in people basically means fat (mass) is burned (energy produced). Carbon dioxide and other waste material is expelled back into the biosphere in the process, but one must be mindful of the ultimate source of the energy in the first place -- the Sun's life giving light (energy). From the plants that utilize this energy it filters up all the way to whatever food it is we eat (mass).

And then there's that other issue of cosmic dust falling to Earth adding 40 tonnes of material daily. So instead of losing mass, the Earth may actually be gaining pounds.

well..i don't think you poop fat so i guess your answer of heat makes
pretty good sense to me..........yeah, makes sense!!

hmmmm..the addition of "cosmic dust" is interesting......

[edit on 13-2-2008 by last time here]

reply to post by Beachcoma


photons are weightless and the magnetic field repels most ionized particles from the sun... so i don't think the sun adds to much to the earth.

so the lost weight is converted to heat??????

what if the overweight person does no exercising but loses weight.

what becomes of the weight??

All the atoms remain!!! Person losing weight meens that either he losses stored energy (stored as molecules) ,losses metabolites or simply losses part of the body . I hope you agree that bodyparts are incorporated into earth's weight, and metabolites also remain.
The energy is stored as a matter.As a complex/ more "energetic" molecules. Doing stuff (like exercising) requires energy. These complex/higher E molecules are broken into smaller/ less energetic molecules. So the weight remains, because all the atoms remain. It just relocates itself on face of the earth.
The only weight earth losses are space ships sent farther into solar system or maybe vulcanic dust after an eruption. It gains much more
from falling meteorites (and ,since it is ATS, UFOs which keep falling from the sky ).

"bodyparts are incorporated into earths weight"

inhabited or not, the earth would weigh the same.....interesting.....

thought provoking indeed! thank you.