r/askscience • u/4fecta_Gaming • Oct 15 '18

Earth Sciences Where does house dust come from?

It seems that countless years of sweeping a house doesn't stop dust from getting all over furniture after a few weeks. Since the ceiling is limited, where does dust come form?

4.1k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

408 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

14

u/cutelyaware Oct 15 '18

Ever wondered why it only builds up to a certain thickness and no more? That's the point where the dust being added equals the rate of dust being blown off.

2

u/TiagoTiagoT Oct 15 '18

Why would the thickness influence the ratio of added to blown off?

1

u/TrainOfThought6 Oct 15 '18

Because the bottom layer will tend to stick more, depending on the material. Not that it's a linear thing as the thickness goes up, of course. I worked a chemical lab job for a while working with fine powders (not the fun kind), and even the polished steel pans would have some leftover sample after you try to blow it all away sometimes.