Does my equator look big in this?
CrowdScience
BBC
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 June 2021
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Scales don’t come planet-sized, so answering a question from David in Ghana may require some ingenuity, after all, calculating the weight of the Earth is a huge task. Using a set of weighing scales and a 400 year-old equation, Marnie Chesterton attempts to find out just how much the Earth weighs and is it getting heavier or lighter over time? But how would a planet gain or lose mass? Which tips the scales: meteorites falling from space or gases constantly escaping from our atmosphere? And does the answer have any implications for the future of Earth? Could the atmosphere eventually run out? Contributors: Anuradha TK, former project director at ISRO Matt Genge, geologist at Imperial College London Jon Larsen, researcher at the University of Oslo Anjali Tripathi, astrophysicist Ethan Seigel, journalist and astrophysicist
Presented by Marnie Chesterton. Produced by Caroline Steel for the BBC World Service.
[Image: Earth on scales. Credit: Getty Images]
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of |
| 0:07.0 | Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.5 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:34.0 | So what are're thinking? What you're thinking? |
| 0:35.0 | Well, I've put the scales on the ground, |
| 0:38.0 | but I'm thinking what I really need to do is put them the other way up |
| 0:42.0 | because if they're wearing the earth |
| 0:44.8 | then they need to be... Okay so this girls are now upside down. You're listening to crowd science from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:57.0 | I'm Marnie Chesterton, and that is the sound of producer Caroline and me |
| 1:01.0 | in my backyard with a set of weighing scales, which she... the I'm hoping it's just going to yell at us. Your weight is 7 times 10 to the power of a billion. |
| 1:18.6 | No it's not working. It won't weigh the earth. I can't think of anything else to do. |
| 1:26.6 | This episode is brought to you by a weighty question from listener David in Ghana. |
| 1:32.1 | My question is, is the earth getting heavier or lighter? |
| 1:36.1 | Do you have any idea? |
| 1:38.9 | I actually have no clue. |
| 1:40.8 | The introduction of metro rights would mean that the Earth probably would become much heavier, but there's also the evaporation of gases, which also contains some little bit of weight to it. So that means a scientist may have to tell us and I am not one. |
| 1:56.4 | And I am not one either but I do know some so Caroline and I are going to ask them. What made you think of this? |
| 2:04.0 | Why are you worried about the weight of the world? |
... |
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