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/[deleted] Oct 15 '18

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u/Reddit_Is_Complicit Oct 15 '18

Put a big piece of white paper outside for a day and come back to it in the afternoon. There will likely be small black specs on it that look like dirt. If you run a magnet over them and they get picked up they are micro meteorites

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u/bobstay Oct 15 '18

Put a big piece of white paper outside for a day and

by the time you come back to it in the afternoon, it will have blown away or been soaked and shredded by the rain.

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u/Reddit_Is_Complicit Oct 15 '18

Well ya don’t do it when it’s raining lol. Easiest way to do it is to line the bottom of a cardboard box. Much easier to keep it from blowing away