If the world stopped spinning..

Watermark said:
I have no idea how fast the winds could be; they could be supersonic at the border. Or tolerble at the border and livable beyond.

I'm not entirely certain where thorn got that we'd be flung out into space. It's true that if it all stopped at once we'd die because we'd be flung west at supersonic speeds. If the stop were gradual then the heating/cooling/wind situation would probably take us out if there weren't any moderate areas.
Click to expand...
It'd be ugly. What would be cool is if we could just turn the earth around and make it spin at the same speed in the opposite direction. That'd be fun for a while. Except the whole impact thing that it would take to make it happen that is.
 
uscitizen said:
Yes Damo but would we be lighter since centrifugal force on us would no longer be happening?
Click to expand...
No, you would not be lighter; you would be the same weight or "heavier." The answer is a vector problem where the apparent force of centripetal inertia has to be corrected for latitude by SIN(90-latitude).
 
Thorn said:
We'd all fall out into space. This is assuming that it slowed gradually to a stop.
Click to expand...
No, we would not. Rotational inertia has a tendency to throw us off the surface - this why space launches happen as far south as possible, to take advantage of the free velocity!
 
Damocles said:
I don't know if anybody would be able to survive the winds at the surface. Or if they'd be "flung into space" because of the magic of centrifugal force.

;)
Click to expand...

If such flinging were to occur, Inertia would cause the fling, not centripetal force.
 
Damocles said:
I don't know if anybody would be able to survive the winds at the surface. Or if they'd be "flung into space" because of the magic of centrifugal force.

;)
Click to expand...

Of course we wouldn't be flung into space by the centrifugal force, magic or otherwise since it has already been clearly established that we are all tied by an invisible string to the center of the earth. Sheesh, get a clue will ya?

The real question is if the invisible rope that is tied to the bucket that holds the earth in the suns orbit were to break, would the earth go careening into alpha centauri way earlier than expected? And if so, would the invisible bucket protect us from other collisions along the way and what would happen if the rope got caught on a quazar or nebula or something?
 
Russellbor said:
Of course we wouldn't be flung into space by the centrifugal force, magic or otherwise since it has already been clearly established that we are all tied by an invisible string to the center of the earth. Sheesh, get a clue will ya?

The real question is if the invisible rope that is tied to the bucket that holds the earth in the suns orbit were to break, would the earth go careening into alpha centauri way earlier than expected? And if so, would the invisible bucket protect us from other collisions along the way and what would happen if the rope got caught on a quazar or nebula or something?
Click to expand...
Here's the question, what happens when the invisible rope reaches its maximum twist and starts to unwind?
 
Damocles said:
Here's the question, what happens when the invisible rope reaches its maximum twist and starts to unwind?
Click to expand...

Well, I don't really have any evidence or proof of any kind but according to my understanding of the Mayan calendar, we reach maximum twist on 12-12-2012, specifically, maximum peppermint twist. As to what will happen, I guess we'll just have to wait and see or make it up ourselves.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top