why does the world keep on spinning?

Answer 1

because you keep being on drugs.

Answer 2

I. JUST THE FACTS
The earth rotates once every 24 hours. This daily 360 degree rotation is the reason that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and why we have day and night. The earth rotates about its axis which is an imaginary straight line that extends from the geographic North Pole in the north through the center of the earth to the geographic South Pole in the south. The geographic poles are defined by this axis of rotation and are the points that a globe spins on.

The map you will be spinning represents a pretty large object. The continent of Antarctica has 17,968 km of coastline. It is approximately 14 million square kilometers in area. That is a little less than 1.5 times the size of the United States. 98% of Antarctica is covered by an enormous thick ice sheet. This ice is on average about 2 km thick, and is up to 4.3 km thick. It totals about 30,000,000 cubic kilometers of ice, that's 23 million trillion kilograms, which is 90% of the world's ice and 70% of the world's fresh water, or 1/5 of all the world's water. Each year the amount of ice that flows off the continent alone is a staggering quantity, the glaciers discharge 900 trillion kilograms of ice a year.

Answer 3

Wow, what a neat question. I think it is related to the effect that we have seen when a skater who has arms extended and is slowly spinning suddenly pullls the arms into the body surface. The result is that spin rate increases. To even spin faster the skater will be standing straight with the arms up over the head. This makes the distributions of mass as close toe the spin axis as possible and makes the spin as large as possible. The main idea is that angular momentum is conseved , ie, cannot change. Angular momentum is the product of the spin rate and the moment of inertia ( a measure of the distribution of the mass about the axis of rotation) The product is constant. If mass is widely dispersed as before condensing into a planet, and is very slowly rotating, then when it condenses into a planet (making a small moment of inertia) the rate of rotation could be large. So condensing amplifies whatever rotation there was initially. Now, what are the chances of something not rotating exactly before it condenses? Apparently, very small since everything seems to have some rotation. I am not sure this gets to your question of why, but it has been a great question to think about. Thanks.

I considered responding to this question but didn't know how
to address the central issue: "since everything seems to have some rotation" Why? I think it's kinda like asking why does everything have mass, or charge, or linear momentum...
I'm not sure how to answer except to say that these are all
fundamental properties of all matter.

One possible answer to your question is this :
Consider objects condensing out of a gas cloud, as they collapse
the tidal force of one lump can induce rotation in a nearby lump.
As angular momentum is conserved, there is no overall rotation in the system ( Universe ) but matter at all scales will have some
rotation. Total angular momentum must add to zero.

Tidal force is a short range force that essentially arises from
variation of some force ( here gravitation ) over the size of the
object we are interested in. To see how this can lead to transfer
of angular momentum, consider the example of Earth Moon system. Here, tidal force of Earth has slowed down rotation of the Moon and now the Moon is doing the same thing to the Earth. Such a transfer requires nonspherical distribution of mass - even a small departure from sphericity can lead to a large transfer of
angular momentum over a long enough time.

Answer 4

In space, there is no such thing as friction, which means that inertia is maintained, or pretty much constant. That is why, if you throw something in outer space, say a baseball, it will keep going in the direction you throw it and never stop (unless it hits something).

Now, take that example and apply it to the planet earth. Billions of years ago, an event known as the "big bang" caused a giant mass to explode, sending chunks of matter into space. Many of these chunks, like the earth, eventually got pulled to a greater gravitational force, in this case the sun. This gravitational pull caused it to start rotating and revolving around the sun. However, the pull of the gravity was not enough to cause the earth to go in a straight trajectory, but rather just enough to keep it rotating and revolving around the sun. The reasons for this have to do with physics, but suffice to say that because this motion was set in place, and because there is no friction on which to make this motion stop, the earth keeps spinning and will continue to do so, until some external force disrupts this. Now, I know astrophysicists may take issue with my oversimplified answer, but it is a rough and adequate explanation given the circumstances.

Answer 5

when it was bearly forming from a cloud of dust and gas gravity made the cloud started to coalesce and it stared spinning. The reason its still spinning today is inertia and gravity. it still had some of the energy from when it first started to spin and gravity from the sun, moon and other objects in space are making it spin

Answer 6

Inertia and no friction. Actually, the spin is slowing, but at such a tiny rate that our sun will go cold before the spin slows enough to matter.

Answer 7

If it stopped we'd all fall off.

It's because to the gravitational pull of the planets - So as we start to break free of one we get grabbed by the next and so on never quite breaking free and never being pulled to far (Cos that would be messy) that given with the fact we go round the sun what else could we do pogo stick round?

Answer 8

Because half of the population of the world, is half-brained, half-cocked, or half-assed...

It makes everything off balance, therefore causing the world to spin around in uncertainty.

Answer 9

Inertia

Answer 10

Is the world spinning.......or is space spinning around us...!!!!!

Answer 11

Lol on the answers. Do you mean the revolution around the sun, which causes the year, or the rotation around its own axis, which causes day and nite??
Take care.