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Asked by mariannaxox to Amy, Sarah, Will on 21 Jun 2012.
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Will Reynolds answered on 21 Jun 2012:
Hi Marianna! Hmm thats an intersting question. Even though there are about 7 billion people on the planet, the total mass of the earth is still much much bigger in comparison. The gravitational pull of an object is determined by its mass. Losing 30 billion pounds (a bit like what bankers did a few years ago!) would be tiny compared to the overall mass of the earth (6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg)! And even if they did the mass that they lose would still stay on earth so overall earth would have the same mass. So no this wouldn’t have any affect on its orbit. The only mass that the earth loses is in the form of Helium. Helium is lighter than air so when it gets released it keep on floating and doesn’t come back! Thanks for your question.
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Sarah Martin answered on 21 Jun 2012:
Hi mariannaxox,
Will has explained that it wouldn’t – but it would affect the rotation of the Earth *very* slightly! Have you done the trick where you sit on an office swivel chair and spin round, and it goes faster when you pull your arms in and slower when you stick them out to the side?
That’s because it take more energy to spin things that are further away from the centre of the spinning object. So if we all lots 30 billion pounds and instead of carrying that mass around our bellies it was now on the ground, one metre closer to the centre of the Earth, then the Earth would spin a tiny tiny tiny bit faster.
But so little, we’d never notice…🙂 Sarah
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