>>16947488 pb
>Atmosphere probably shrank
well… you got the principle of conservation of rotational inertia right, but…
the weight of the earth is 1.3 x 10^25 lbs
the weight of the atmosphere is ~ 1.3 x 10^19 lbs
ie, the earth is about one million times more massive than the atmosphere.
and for a quick comparison of relative scale in size, if you huff your breath on a bowling ball and create a film of condensation, that film is roughly the proportionate depth of the atmosphere if the earth were the size of the bowling ball. not to say your suggestion is totally lacking in merit. the ∆t they report is only about 0.0000000000048% change, so i cannot reject your hypothesis out of hand, without a more detailed analysis. but it also begs the question, what made the atmosphere contract? (global cooling?)