Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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If we took material like rock from space and got it back to Earth enough times, would Earth grow as a planet? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by [email protected] to c/showerthoughts

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As the title says. I'm actually thinking about this hard with my friends because everything that's produced on Earth stays on Earth so it doesn't change size, but what if it's not from Earth but it stays on Earth?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Or maybe it’s just the case that the amount of energy needed to create mass is astronomically minuscule.

It would actually be an astronomically large amount. An atomic bomb will turn a very tiny amount of mass into a tremendous amount of energy. And that's with a nuclear process that is way more efficent then a chemical one like photosynthesis.

But from pure physics standpoint a carbon atom and an O2 molecule will have a teeny-tiny bit more mass than a CO2 molecule (which is why combining or burning them together will release some energy). So doing the reverse and splitting up a CO2 molecule into it's parts will generate a little bit of mass.

[–] ccunning 3 points 7 months ago

Wow - that’s what I meant. Not sure how I managed to get it backwards.

And to think I fretted so much over using “astronomically” and “minuscule” together 🤪