What we have here is an immense and startlingly new oil and gas field — nighttime evidence of an oil boom created by a technology called fracking. Those lights are rigs, hundreds of them, lit at night, or fiery flares of natural gas.
To create that light, we get stuff out of the planet. Solid matter is turned into light, which is sent into space.
Does that mean the weight of the planet is decreasing?
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
emordnilap wrote:To create that light, we get stuff out of the planet. Solid matter is turned into light, which is sent into space.
Does that mean the weight of the planet is decreasing?
I guess it must mean that, actually, when you come to think of it. There is no such thing as a free lunch. On the other hand, the amount of energy locked up in even a single atom means that I would think a very small amount of the right kind of matter makes a lot of light if converted in the right way. It must do, otherwise stars would go out very quickly.
emordnilap wrote:To create that light, we get stuff out of the planet. Solid matter is turned into light, which is sent into space.
Does that mean the weight of the planet is decreasing?
I guess it must mean that, actually, when you come to think of it. There is no such thing as a free lunch. On the other hand, the amount of energy locked up in even a single atom means that I would think a very small amount of the right kind of matter makes a lot of light if converted in the right way. It must do, otherwise stars would go out very quickly.
It is probably only a tiny part of the planet's mass, but still, it makes you think. Also, energy is being added to the planet all the time from the sun.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
Methane + oxygen = water + carbon dioxide + heat and light.
What's the difference in mass between
CH4+2O2 and 2H2O+CO2
Answer, not very much! It's not even fission. We're just involved with energy states of electrons and suchlike.
For the chemically inclined, it's actually a good deal more complicated with loads of intermediate steps but that equation kinda starts and stops in the right places with the release of 891 kJ/mol (at standard conditions).
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
Methane + oxygen = water + carbon dioxide + heat and light.
What's the difference in mass between
CH4+2O2 and 2H2O+CO2
Answer, not very much! It's not even fission. We're just involved with energy states of electrons and suchlike.
For the chemically inclined, it's actually a good deal more complicated with loads of intermediate steps but that equation kinda starts and stops in the right places with the release of 891 kJ/mol (at standard conditions).
Yes.
The earth is gradualy becoming more massive, according to most scientists, but nothing to do with the above.
Meteorites are constantly arriving, most are minute and burn up in the upper atmosphere, but ash, dust, gas, or vapour resulting is still an addition to the mass of the earth.
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