how fast is the earth spinning?

Question

Most of the answers to this question are saying that the earth is spinning at around 1000 mph. If this is so, why can't we feel it or get dizzy?

Answer 1

We won't feel it because we are moving along with it. We will only notice any movement if the acceleration changes. It's like being in a car, when you speed up, you kind of stay in place for a moment and go back in your seat. If you stop suddenly, you go forward in your seat. If the Earth slows down, we will continue to move at the previous rate of speed and we will shoot through the atmosphere and land back on Earth many miles east of our original location.

Answer 2

simple...here is the equation you punch in the numbers. The equation is Distance = Rate x Time. Start with the diameter of the earth(distance-mi.). This is because a single point on this true diameter will achieve a full rotation of 360 (1 day). Next find the Time(approx. 24hrs)this is how long it takes that point to travel the full 360. Now solve for Rate(mph) using simple algebra. However, finding a true diameter of the earth and time will be tricky. Good Luck!

Answer 3

If you think about how long a day is, I think you will figure out that the earth spins one revolution in about 24 hours, so if we put a rotational rate on the earth it would be 360 degrees (one revolution) per day = 360 degrees per 24 hours = 15 degrees per hour = 15 degrees per 60 minutes = 0.25 degrees per minute.

Now, the actual speed that you have depends where on the earth you are, and the reason for that is that your speed depends on how far from the rotational axis you are. The two extremes are at the equator and at the poles, because at the equator you would be as far from the axis as you can be, and at the poles you would be right on the axis and therefore zero distance from it. For a spinning body the (linear) speed is equal to the rotational rate (which we calculated in the previous paragraph) times the distance from the axis, but the rotation has to measured in radians. There are 2 Pi radians in one revolution, so there are Pi / 180 radians in one degree. So, 0.25 degrees per minute is equal to about 0.004363 radians per minute, or about 0.0000727 radians per second.

So at the equator you would be going about 6380 km (the radius of the earth) times 0.0000727 radians per second, which is equal to about 0.464 km per second, or 464 meters per second! Considering that the speed limit on Interstate highways is only about 29.1 meters per second, you are going fast at the equator by just standing still! At the poles you have zero linear speed, but you are spinning like a top.

There are other motions that we haven't talked about yet, such as the (almost) circular path we take around the sun every year.

Okay, so how come we don't feel all this motion? What our bodies actually sense are accelerations, which are *CHANGES* in velocity. As long as we have a nearly constant velocity we don't feel any motion. Think about what it feels like in a car on a very smooth road if the car is neither speeding up nor slowing down. If you close your eyes can you tell that you are moving? You probably can because of other clues such as sounds, but you might not *FEEL* the motion. That's the way it is with our motion on the earth; it's constant (more or less) and it's smooth!




In addition, the centrifugal force which tends to pull us away from earth when standing at the equator (same as the force that pulls you to the side of your car in a turn) is small compared to the force of gravity that keeps you down.

Answer 4

We're moving at the same speed along with Earth. If Earth was to suddenly stop spinning, we would all fly off the planet on a tangent. It's like a car moving and then braking; we shift forward.

Answer 5

First, the circumference of the Earth is 24,901.55 miles. Second, the Earth spins one revolution every 24 hours. Therefore, the Earth is spinning at 1037.56 miles per hour.

Answer 6

Our planet is spinning at about 1,000 mph at the equator (less towards the poles). It also travels at about 60,880 mph as it revolves around the sun. Oh wait...our planet and our solar system is revolving around our Milky Way galaxy at about 492,000 mph. Ok...one more. Our planet, our Milky Way, and our local group of galaxies are moving at about 1,340,000 mph against the background of the universe. What a ride!

Answer 7

The Galaxy Song; By Eric Idle

Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown,
And things seem hard or tough,
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,
And you feel that you've had quite eno-o-o-o-o-ough...

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the "Milky Way".

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

(Animated calliope interlude)

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.

You can listen here:
http://www.gecdsb.on.ca/d&g/astro/music/Galaxy_Song.html

Answer 8

we dont feel it because we are apart of the earth / we spin with the earth we are attached to the earth due to gravity (the mass of the earth ) we are apart of the earth.if the earth were to stop spinning instantly then disorientation would occur just like ie. merry go round you stay on it long enough you become use to the change but as it stops you become disoriented in our case we are kinda born into it / all of us!

Answer 9

I'll just answer the last part. We don't feel it or get dizzy because we are along for the ride. Our planet and everything on it are traveling at the same speed, hence we cannot feel it nor would it make us dizzy.

Answer 10

Gravity keeps you in sync with the earth which is why you don't feel the earth spinning.