If “energy equals mass”, shouldn’t we be gaining mass from the sun too 🤔
tobogganablaze@lemmus.org 2 months ago
I mean yeah. If you add stuff to a ball of stuff it get’s bigger.
Currently Earth is actually losing mass around 55.000 tones of mass per year. (100.000 tons loss due to air escaping to space but we gaing around 45.000 tons in dust and meteorties falling on earth).
ccunning@lemmy.world 2 months ago
rockerface@lemm.ee 2 months ago
We do. The sun’s energy is locked in plants via photosynthesis, which is then processed by herbivores and passed further down the food chain. That energy exists in form of chemical compounds which are then broken down to release it during digestion.
In terms of numbers tho, it’s probably a negligible fraction of the Earth’s mass
ccunning@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I thought plant biomass was obtained from the air (CO2/carbon sequestration?) and water.
NoIWontPickAName@kbin.earth 2 months ago
You need photosynthesis to do that
NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 2 months ago
We do, an infinitely small amount. Remember you gotta divide by c².
ccunning@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Isn’t this just a matter of units though?
Like we could define our own units such that 1 unit of e equals 1 unit of m.
I have no clue what units that c^2^ formula are actually in 😕
tobogganablaze@lemmus.org 2 months ago
I have no clue what units that c2 formula are actually in 😕
c is the speed of light, so you can use it by any distance over time unit. But most commonly it’s given as 299 792 458 m/s
Like we could define our own units such that 1 unit of e equals 1 unit of m.
So you can’t since m is multiplied by c and c isn’t equal to 1.
groet@feddit.de 2 months ago
energy equals mass
That doesn’t mean energy has a weight.
It means it is physically possible to transition energy to mass and vice versa. Sunlight hitting the earth does not add any weight.
Also, earth radiates heat out to space. At a rate of (aaaaaaaaalmost, because of the greenhouse effect) 100% of the energy we get from the sun. If it didn’t, earth would be a few million degrees hot by now…
sushibowl@feddit.nl 2 months ago
That doesn’t mean energy has a weight.
No, it literally does mean that. If you put light in a box of mirrors the total weight of the box will literally increase by an amount equal to the energy of the photons. If you put some radioactive material in a theoretically perfectly sealed box from which no heat or light could escape, and weigh it while it decays into radiation, the weight will not change.
This applies to all forms of energy. A spring is heavier when compressed. An object gets heavier when you spin it, or heat it up. Sunlight hitting the earth most definitely makes it heavier. In fact, the sun hits the earth with about 4.4*10^16 watts of power, corresponding to about 0.5 kilogram per second.
ccunning@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Oooh…Good point. And now I have conflicting responses.
This one makes the most intuitive sense to me but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
One more thing to connect both responses.
Energy itself doesn’t have mass. Mass is interchangeable. But we do gain mass by a very kittle amount when it is stored (by plants or solar panels you know). So both answers checks out. Mass can be converted to large amount of energy and large amount of energh can be converted to little amount of mass.
purplemonkeymad@programming.dev 2 months ago
Energy don’t have weight but, it does have an effect on the curvature of space the same way matter does. In fact one of the proposed methods to create artificial blackholes is to put enough photons into the same place. It’s easier than getting matter together as photons don’t interact with eachother.
However the point is correct that light energy will only impart an insignificant amount to the earth’s pull.
toasteecup@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Katamari intensifies
entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
La~ lalala-lala-la-la-la Katamari Damashi~