I read on here that the earth's rotation is slowing gradually, is this true?

Question

If it is then what is causing it to slow and what is the estimated time for it to stop rotating all together???

Answer 1

It's perfectly fine for answerers to put in their two cents, but please people don't make scientific conjectures if you aren't at least a little familiar with the subject and might confuse people by inadvertently providing false information. Yes, the Earth is slowing down because of frictional interactions between the crust, the atmosphere, the mantle, and core of the Earth. The fact that space is a near vacuum has nothing to do with this--every time bodies on Earth (even if it's one molecule in the air with one molecule on the ground) collide, a little bit of the kinetic energy that kept the molecules moving (mechanical, or useful energy) is lost as heat energy, and there is that much less energy available to do work. If this case is extended to the entire Earth, there is only so much potential energy that can be converted to kinetic energy by various internal means that cause the Earth to spin; when some of this energy is converted to heat due to friction, available kinetic energy decreases. After a really long time--too long to worry about--no more potential energy would exist on the Earth (I think other reviewers are right in saying that the sun will expand and "die" before the Earth's rotation decreases a great deal). It might seem counter-intuitive that a body moving through empty space could slow down rotationally eventually, but the space on and within Earth is not empty, and friction does take place on a very large scale.

Answer 2

Yes, it is slowing down. The main reason is tidal effects from the moon. This has already slowed the moon's rotation to the point that it keeps the same face towards the earth at all times. The earth's rotation will not ever stop. Instead, it will slow to the place where it always keeps the same face towards the moon. So at that point, a day will be one month long. The month will be a bit longer since the energy of rotation of the earth will have been converted into potential energy of the moon, making it move slightly farther away from the earth.

This has been happening for a long time. Based on evidence from ancient corals, the day was shorter about 200 million years ago to the point that the year was 400 days long. As for the moon, every month would have had a total solar eclipse during the age of dinosaurs (because the moon was closer) and in a few million years more, there will be no total solar eclipses (only partial and annular ones).

Answer 3

El Nino slows down the earth:

El Ni񯠴emporarily caused the day to grow longer by slowing down the Earth's rotation, according to Dr. John Gipson of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The increase was slight, about 0.6 milliseconds (6/10,000 of a second) at its peak, and required extraordinarily sensitive measurements from the Very Long Baseline Interferometery (VLBI) network, a global array of radio telescopes, to detect. El Ni񯠩ncreased the speed of the atmosphere, which slowed the Earth's spin.


Tides slow down the earth:

The interaction of the Moon and the tides is pumping angular momentum out of Earth's spin and into the Moon's orbit.

angular momentum:
A quantity obtained by multiplying the mass of an orbiting body by its velocity and the radius of its orbit. According to the conservation laws of physics, the angular momentum of any orbiting body must remain constant at all points in the orbit, i.e., it cannot be created or destroyed. If the orbit is elliptical the radius will vary. Since the mass is constant, the velocity changes. Thus planets in elliptical orbits travel faster at perihelion and more slowly at aphelion. A spinning body also possesses spin angular momentum.


Earth already slowed down and is still slowing:

Based upon interpretations espoused by leading researchers in this field, it is widely believed (based upon coral fossils) that the annual cycle of the ancient past contained more days than the current annual cycle (which is 365.24). The indication that the ancient year contained more days is interpreted to mean that the spin of the Earth has gradually slowed across millions of years.

Answer 4

Yes it is, due to various types of friction. Scientists estimate it is slowing at the rate of 2.2 seconds every 100,000 years. This has been confirmed by looking at ancient records of eclipses. Eventually the earth's rotation would stop so that one side is always facing the moon, just like one side of the moon always faces earth. This is called being "tidally locked." Notice I said earth's rotation "would stop" instead of "will stop." That's because it's going to take too long. Like another poster said, the sun will incinerate both the earth and the moon before then.

Answer 5

It is. No movement is perpetual. Friction, even if very small, will slow down everything, unless some new force propells the body back into movement. Earth was propelled millions of years ago by the Big Bang (Hawkins), and is still going, but slowing gradually, at a very small rate. Theoretically, someday, it may slow so much that the sun will atract it, more so if the sun dies and becomes a black hole. We won't live to see this.

Answer 6

The Earth's rotation was slowing primarily due to the effect of the tides. When tides occure, large bodies of water are displaced. This movement caused forces, such of friction, which countered the rotation of the Earth.

Answer 7

It is true. Friction generated by the tides is slowing Earth's rotation. The day is getting longer and longer, by something like a few seconds per century.

Answer 8

The Earths spin isnt 'slowing down', thats absurd because the regulation of conservation of angular momentum applies to its spin. identity pick to understand the predicate for this hypothesis or which scientists element out this? The Earth will proceed to spin contained in the present route see you later as angular momentum is conserved; the in undemanding words possibility of it reversing its spin will be an particularly wide effect, sufficient to blow off our angular momentum, alongside with a huge comet.

Answer 9

It's true - the friction from the atmosphere is slowing it down. In another few million years we'll all fly off.

Answer 10

yes
there is nothing supplying energy to keep it rotating
internal friction of magma, the moon swinging around us and us swinging around the sun all cause "frictional" losses causing us to slow down.

But don't worry about the earth stopping, the sun will go supernova and destroy it long before then