James Taggart wrote:
> Every day, a few thousand pounds of space dust settles on the earth.
> The only mass leaving earth is the occasional satellite we toss up.
> Therefore, over time, the earth is becoming more massive. Hence, the
> force of gravity on earth IS increasing. Those of you including a plan
> to lose weight in your New Years resolutions should reconsider.
The seriousness of this effect is mitigated somewhat if we use a
simple model in which the earth's average density remains constant. In
this case the earth's radius must also increase so that surface gravity
increases more slowly (like M^(1/3) rather than M) with increasing M than
it would if the mass always had to be packed into the same volume.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Interface"
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Dec 26 2001 - 09:41:44 EST