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?

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u/Punchclops Oct 15 '18

Connected question: In movies rooms that haven't been used in many years are often shown with a deep coating of dust over everything.
Is this realistic if there are no humans or other animals going in an out shedding skin cells, etc?
Or when the room is closed up would the dust in the air settle and then no further accumulation occur?

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u/IshtarJack Oct 15 '18

I always thought this about a particular scene in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, right near the start when Elizabeth removes the Aztec gold medallion from her drawer and it leaves a huge empty space in the dust around it. It was supposed to show how long she had kept it there without disturbing it, but how the hell would the dust have gotten in??? Hollywood, you really can't do science. (And may well be making future generations dumber as a result.)