Immaterial Matter

 13,170,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pounds

That's how much the earth weighs. So here's a question. Has it always weighed 13,170,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pounds and will it still weigh 13,170,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pounds when we are all dead and gone?

Mass is a measure of the amount of matter in something. People use weight and mass interchangeably in casual conversation, but they aren't actually the same thing. Earth doesn't really have "weight" because it's not being held down to a particular planet or surface. It does have "mass" because it has a certain amount of matter.

As far as the mass of Earth, it's generally just reorganizing. Matter can't be created or destroyed, so the only way that the mass of earth changes is if something enters earth that wasn't there before (like a meteor), or if something leaves earth (like the flag we left on the moon, or the robots we send to Mars).

According to some calculations, the Earth is losing 50,000 metric tons of mass every single year, even though an extra 40,000 metric tons of space dust converge onto the Earth’s gravity well, it’s still losing weight.

Chris Smith, a microbiologist, and Dave Ansel, a Cambridge University physicist provided the answer in BBC Radio 4’s More or Less program. The 40,000 metric ton of mass that accumulates comes from space dust, remnants of the formation of the solar system.

"Earth's mass is variable, subject to both gain and loss due to the accretion of in-falling material, including micrometeorites and cosmic dust and the loss of hydrogen and helium gas, respectively. The combined effect is a net loss of material, estimated at 5.5×10⁷ kg (5.4×10⁴ ) per year. This amount is 10⁻¹⁷ of the total earth mass. The 5.5×10⁷ kg annual net loss is essentially due to 100,000 tons lost due to atmospheric escape, and an average of 45,000 tons gained from in-falling dust and meteorites. This is well within the mass uncertainty of 0.01% (6×10²⁰ kg), so the estimated value of Earth's mass is unaffected by this factor."

Since matter cannot be created or destroyed it would appear that every atomic particle of every atom, of every molecule, of every substance of everything living, dead or inanimate is still here and can be accounted for.

I was born here with nothing more than a few kicks and screams and will most likely go out the same way. Or, more likely in my case: I came into this world with nothing and still have most of it.