Does the road spin below your car, or do you drive over the earth?

Question

lol ladhriana...

Eravial
Pretend I'm only driving in one car.

Answer 1

For all the ad hominem ladrhiana does have a point.
From the pure physics point of view both car moving and earth moving are happening -- as all motion is strictly relative.
But for practical reasons -- just pick a reference point that is convenient and stick with it.
Picking earth as a fixed reference point makes a lot of sense for some purposes -- like driving a car.
For other purposes picking earth as fixed point is not so good, for example calculating the orbits of the planets is much easier with sun as a fixed point.

P.S.
Eravial's "proof" is not correct.
If 2 cars are driving in opposite directions, it is possible to say that earth is rotating around car # 1 and car # 2 travels in a complex trajectory around the car# 1. Sure this is conceptually hard, but it is possible. In fact this is similar to what Ptolemy has done to calculate the paths of the planets while keeping the earth in the center. He had to explain spirals and retrograde motion but he accomplished this using epicycles. The same can be done with 2 cars and earth.

Answer 2

I drive over the earth because If the road spinned under me then my car would flip over lol

Answer 3

In all seriousness, drive over the earth. Roads can be travelled in both directions, so if two cars were passing each other, it would mean that the earth would be spinning both directions at once. Impossible, so you drive over the earth. QED.

Answer 4

Based on my gas bill, I'm sure I drive over it. If it spins under us, how do you account for all of the cars on the road, at any one time, going in all different directions?

Answer 5

The earth is always spinning whether you are driving or not. Now if you could drive your car at 25,000 km/h, then that would be an interesting question.

Answer 6

If you were at the equator, and drove opposite the earth's rotation at 1,000 mph, the earth would spin while your car stood still. The farther away from the equator, the slower you could drive.

Answer 7

Both I suppose to different extenets. When I was five I remember thinking that a ball only rolled along the ground because the earth was moving under it though.

Answer 8

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE THE MOST STUPID "SMART PERSON" ON THE PLANET. AND LIKE MOST "INTELLECTUALS", YOU ARE INTENSELY OBTUSE!
your little implied questions are of no consequence, irrelevant. you are in thought an abstract impressionist. You enjoy believing in nothing and overthinking everything. I pitty you.
I enjoy my life of faith, family, contented responsibility. we happily pay our taxes and we are thankful everyday that we live here and now. we, unlike you spend our time appreciating what we have instead of brooding over pointless pholoso-babble. i have to wonder what your life is really like, could any woman stand being around you long enough to marry you? or will the next generation be lucky and not suffer your progeny? you sir, are a boil on the butt of humanity and you need to be lanced before you grow or multiply your number.

Answer 9

The road moves below my car.

And the rest of the universe revolves around me.

I am the only static point in the universe, regardless of where I am.

Answer 10

Niether. Your car shoots backwards making the world seem to move forward by contrast. You will never really get anywhere. Life de-evolves, God hates you and your out of clean socks.