If the World Stopped Spinning?

Discussion in 'Earth Science' started by pharaohmoan, Jan 14, 2008.

  1. pharaohmoan The illusion is you, let go. Registered Senior Member

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    What would happen if the world stopped spinning? also
    What if the Earth rotated twice as fast?

    Key things i need to know are what effect would gravity have on us in the two scenarios above.
     
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  3. cat2only Registered Senior Member

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    Instantly or over time?
     
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  5. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    If it stopped one side would be super heated and everything would cook to death on the other side of Earth it would freeze and those there would freeze to death. Yes it would get that hot and cold if the Earth stopped which one day it will. It is slowing down about one second a year or so. As for speeding up that won't happen so that's not to worry about. Gravity remains the same in both scenarios.
     
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  7. Myles Registered Senior Member

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    Have you ever observed the moon through a telescope over a period of time ?
     
  8. sly1 Heartless Registered Senior Member

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    Since the earth is not roating.....It would still be orbiting the sun....SO for only 1 side of the earth to see the sun would mean it had a synchronous orbit like the moon and would imply a roation. If the earth did not rotate at all and was still orbiting the sun, there would still be a day night cycle right? Of course at a much slower period of time.

    so the non spinning earth's day would be 365 spinning earth days?
     
  9. pharaohmoan The illusion is you, let go. Registered Senior Member

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    308
    if it stopped would we float or would be pinned down if the awnser is either please say y
     
  10. Nickelodeon Banned Banned

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    I'd get off.
     
  11. shichimenshyo Caught in the machine Registered Senior Member

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    I dont see why you have to make everything sexual

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  12. orcot Valued Senior Member

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    if the earth would spin 2times as fast, the the planet would still rotate like it did 2 or 3 billion years ago, live has evolved on earth when it proberly spun even fasther. The biggest difference would be the obvious shorter day and a smaller temprature difference.
     
  13. [a-5] Sex machine, coin operated. Registered Senior Member

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    LMFAO.
     
  14. DwayneD.L.Rabon Registered Senior Member

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    999
    Well, there could be two sunrises and sunsets in a day, if you lived on the horizon, or treminator of day and night. (such a scenerio has been mentioned in south american legends as i have heard).
    Also one side of the earth would exsperince a ice age, and one side a heat wave, or very tropical enviorment, as the water of the oceans would evaporate causing a humid mist to cover the side facing the sun, filght would be easier you probally could get a hang glider and float half way around the world on thermals. much simualr to some speculation about the life of people in south americas past, hang gliding from tall mountains, and people living in on tall mountains. mainly because the mist lower is so dense that you could not see through it, but you could walk down through the mist almost to the bottom of the oceans, like the atlantic, Islands that are now in the ocean such as japan and england would become large mountains and be connected to the main lands. (which may be the reason for some of the sturctures found of the coast of the islands of japan). Flying in a hydrogen ballon would be easy but it would be just as easy to fly using a oxygen ballon. another reason for living on top of high mountains the ablity to breath.
    The earth does not spin very fast only about 1046 miles per hour, and yes it is noted as slowing down, but there are other effects that may cause the earth to stop, the earth tilts 1 to 1.4 degrees every 100 years of about 0.5 miles per year at this rate the north pole or south pole was facing the sun some time in the past 5,000 to 10,000 years ago. the sphinks and pyamids of eygpt are thought to have been built 3,000 to 5,000 years ago some say 10,000 years ago, for the earth to do a 180 degree turn it would take from 18,000 years to 12,857 years.
    If we chose a date 5,000 years ago about the time of the sphinks and pryamids then the earth has turned 50 degrees to to 70 degrees, if you and the current axis tilt to that say 23.5 degrees, it for the most part defines that the entrance into the pyramids was faceing the sun when they where built, which makes a lot of sense.

    If the earth stopped spinning it would start again, as the force that causes the earth to spin is the sun, so if you look at how the Planet Neptune spins, you would find the way the earth would start spinning again, the spin axis would be at what we call the equator.
    The current equator acts in opposstion to the force that caused the orginal spina of the earth, and so the earth should stop spinning soon, haveing about 23.5 degrees left before it stops which comes out to about 2,350 years from now. even so the current postion of the earths rotation actually defines that the earth does not rotate on its oringal axis but on the second axis which is bascially just a wobble, kind of like a lot of skips around in a circle, some skips are 30 minutes long some 90 minutes ect..... one thing about being in this postion is that we could lose skips rather quickly in the wrong motion causing the earth to come to a stop much quicker, a very good reason for not allowing nuclear testing.
    The ozone whole has marked features of this type of effect on earth, as well Elnino, however elnino remains difficult to sort out as the region was subject to nuclear testing.


    Many of the facts of geology support that the earth had a different oreintaion and rotation, even the dipcitions drawn and made by eygptian and ancient astronomers, as well biological life cycles also give some matches for a different rotation period, ancient calendars ect.... give reference ect...

    One thying seems clear humans survied or came in to existance in that condition.


    DwayneD.L.Rabon
     
  15. Carcano Valued Senior Member

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    Hmmm, how does that work?

    It makes sense to me that the earths rotation would be slowing down because of friction with the atmosphere.
     
  16. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Gravity is caused by the mass not by the spin of an object.
     
  17. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    :wallbang:

    day
    –noun
    1. the interval of light between two successive nights; the time between sunrise and sunset: Since there was no artificial illumination, all activities had to be carried on during the day.
    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/day
     
  18. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    39,397
    There wouldn't be much difference in gravity in either case.

    If the Earth stopped spinning, then apparent gravity everywhere would be the same as it is right now at the north or south poles, which aren't affected by the spin anyway.

    If the Earth spun twice as fast as it does now, people would be a little lighter on the equator (I think the fractional decrease in apparent weight would be about 0.6%)

    As cosmictraveler pointed out, apparent weight on Earth is mostly due to the mass of the Earth, and not primarily due to its spin. Gravity is due to the attraction of all bits of matter in the universe for all other bits of matter.
     
  19. D H Some other guy Valued Senior Member

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    Centripetal acceleration due to Earth rotation acts to slightly counter the acceleration due to Earth gravity. The centripetal acceleration varies with latitude. At the equator, the value is \(6378\text{km}*(2\pi/86400\text{sec})^2\) or 0.0337 m/s[sup]2[/sup]. This is quite small compared to 9.8 m/s[sup]2[/sup].

    A much more significant effect is that the Earth's rotation affects the shape of the geopotential surface. The Earth's oceans would split into two polar oceans separated by a dry equatorial landmass if the Earth somehow stopped spinning but maintained its spheroidal shape. This article discusses this "what if" scenario.

    A thumbnail view of the non-spinning Earth:

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    http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0703/graphics/geoid7_lg.jpg
     
  20. pharaohmoan The illusion is you, let go. Registered Senior Member

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    308
    So does this mean if the earth stopped spinning and there were no centripetal force would we still be able to walk on earth, and would buildings still stand? Is a body that stands on the north pole heavier than on the equator?
     
  21. pharaohmoan The illusion is you, let go. Registered Senior Member

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    308
    No why what happens appart from the different phases that is?
     
  22. DwayneD.L.Rabon Registered Senior Member

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    999
    Well Carcano
    The sun has a interface with the earth,where the earth is bound to the sun.
    The sun rotates and that motion causes a motion in the earth, depending on where the earth is when it stops, will determine the new start velocity.
    if at the equator the the new velocity will be determined by the motion of the suns equator, if away from the equator then at that velocity. eventualy the speed picks up and the earth starts spinning being positioned as the planet neptune, with the center of spin facing the sun, when the earth reaches a certain velocity it will start turning upward where the axis of spin departs from its position facing the sun, the axis then moves north or south and over time will again face the north. At about the 45 degree the spin changes from the primary spin to the secondary spin wobble, and there after the wobble spin beings to become more dominate.

    It may be that both venus and mercury may once again start rotating, the unknown factor would suggest that it takes some long duration of time before the spin begins again if you trust the inference of the effects of mercury and venus.

    91,200,000 miles mark a certain barrier for the sun, the out come of the effect of that barrier remains to be exsplored, earth is just about right at that distance from the sun,just out side of it, once earth passes through that barrier it just may mean no rotation for the earth, permeantly.

    The lack of centrifugal force would cause the earth to exspand, which may speed up the revoultion around the sun, making the year shorter.


    DwayneD.L.Rabon
     
  23. D H Some other guy Valued Senior Member

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    2,257
    There is essentially no coupling between the Sun's rotation and the Earth's rotation. There is a very, very, very small coupling between the Earth's orbit about the Sun and the Earth's rotation about its axis.

    Gravity is a 1/R[sup]2[/sup] force. Tidal effects result from the gradient of the gravitational acceleration, so this is a 1/R[sup]3[/sup] effect. This is why the Moon is the primary driver of tides on the Earth even though the Sun is much more massive than is the Moon. Tidal coupling is an even weaker effect than tidal gravity: 1/R[sup]6[/sup]. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking#timescale). The Sun will blow up to a red giant and condense into a cinder long before the Sun has any noticeable effect on the Earth's rotation.
     

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