ScienceFocus.com

Is Earth getting bigger?

Now, this may sound like a stupid question, but if you take into account debris from space, geological activity and so on, could the Earth be expanding?
What do you reckon? Send us your thoughts in no more than 100 words by 22nd February and we'll print the best answers in the 'You are the expert' section in the April issue.

Submitted by Jheni Osman

earth

Mon, 2010-02-15 16:33
Guest

Global warming is heating up the world so generally speaking everything is hotter and when something is heated its particles become further apart so everything is getting bigger as it is getting hotter, including the earth.
Also, people dig up ancinet archeological remains and bones and walls of houses so in the olden days the outside of the world must have been further down so it has definately got bigger.

Expansion effect

Fri, 2010-02-19 11:42
Guest

Robert Matthews here, on his tea-break.....Global warming would undoubtedly increase the size of the Earth, at least as defined by the height of the seas. These expand with rising temperature (indeed, this effect is bigger than the much-discussed contribution of the fresh water from all those melting glaciers etc). As rotating objects spin more slowly as they expand (vide ice-skaters opening their arms), the effect might even be detectable via changes in the length of the day as timed relative to atomic clocks.

On the other hand...the Earth's solid body is cooling, as a result of the decay of the radioactive elements inside it that have kept it hot. The effect is relatively slow, but over billions of years might have had a noticeable effect.

The Earth

Sun, 2010-02-14 22:53
Guest

From which side do you think that it is getting bigger? İs it weight or the size?... First clear this than I'll comment..

is the earth getting bigger

Sun, 2010-02-07 23:48
nemisis39

This question was raised in the forum and judging by the posts the general feeling is yes, due to space dust etc, but not by a great amount. Althought i would have thought that the amount of refuse we as a species produce and have to get rid off, would increase not only the size but also the weight of our little blue planet.