If the earth stopped rotating (as in the first Superman movie), would everything fly off?

Question

If the earth stopped rotating about its own axis, not about the sun, ignoring the catostrophic issues this entails, what exactly would be the physics?

Assuming a sudden stop.

Answer 1

Earth is rotating at a speed of about 1100 miles per hour. If our planet suddenly stopped rotating, the atmosphere would still be in motion at that speed. The atmosphere would be moving so fast it would literally sweep the land masses clear of anything not anchored to bedrock, this would mean rocks, soil, trees, buildings, people and animals. All would be swept up into the atmosphere.

If the Earth's rotation slowed down gradually over millions of years, and this is the most likely scenario, it would be a very different story. If the Earth slowed down to one rotation every year, called synchronous rotation, every area on Earth would be in either sunlight or darkness for one year. This would be similar to what the Moon goes through where for two weeks the front side of the Moon is illuminated by the Sun followed by the front side being in darkness for two weeks.

But what if the Earth stopped rotating completely? In that case, one half the Earth would be in daylight for half the year while the other side would be in darkness. The second half of the year it would be reversed. Temperature variations would be far more extreme then they are now. The temperature gradient would affect the wind circulation also. Air would move from the equator to the poles rather then in wind systems parallel to the equator as they are now.

Answer 2

I don't think anyone could tell you for certain what would happen if the Earth did not rotate as it currently does. I can, however, mention some things which you may want to look into if you are seriously researching this topic.

When you say the Earth stops rotating, I assume that you mean that one side of the Earth is always facing the Sun. This is what is known as being tidally locked, like the Moon is to Earth and Mercury is to the Sun. Venus is not tidally locked, but its rotation is very slow. Keep in mind though that the Earth would still be rotating, once per revolution about the sun (once per year). The Moon rotates once a month, Mercury once a mercurian year, and Venus, with a very slight retrograde rotation, actually completes one rotation in a little more than one venusian year.

One of the most profound effects would be that one side of the Earth would be much warmer than the other. For comparison, take a look at the differences in dayside and nightside temperatures of Mercury and the Moon. Venus is an odd exception, its dense atmosphere is mostly CO2 which traps the heat and causes daytime termperatures hotter than Mercury's dayside temps. However, the atmosphere also convects the thermal energy very well into the night side so the temperature difference is not as pronounced as on other slowly rotating bodies.

While the Coriolis effect does affect the movement of all fluids on the planet, solar heating is a much more influential factor on the movement of the atmosphere and the oceans. It is the solar heating which drives the convective processes on Venus. A study of the motion of clouds on Venus may give you some insight into how the Earth's weather patterns might be affected. The Coriolis effect is much more pronounced on a planet like Jupiter which has a much faster rotation and much less solar heating.

Another factor which may be relevant is the strength of the Earth's magnetic field. It is not well known exactly how much the rotation of the Earth affects the motion of the molten rock in the mantle which gives rise to the magnetic field. My guess is that it would be significantly reduced since the only remaining preturbing force of significance would be the tidal forces caused by the Moon.

While we're in speculation mode... if we were to assume that none of the above affects were sufficient enough to render the Earth completely uninhabitable by life as we know it, and if we were lucky enough to have the Pacific ocean directly beneath the Sun, then I would venture to guess that a habitable zone would be possible within ten to twenty degrees from the terminator (day/night dividing line). The reason we would want the Pacific Ocean to be the spot directly under the Sun is because fluids transport thermal energy much better than solids. Besides preventing excessive heat build up in one location, it would also enable the rest of the planet to be heated by convective processes. Thus establishing the habitable zones around the terminator.

Nothing will fly off as the rotation has very little effect on gravity.

Answer 3

No. In fact, the earth's current rotation REDUCES the effect of gravity by about 1%. So eliminating the rotation would effectively increase gravity.

The question is how fast would the earth's rotation decelerate?
If it was sudden, the atmosphere wouldn't be able to slow down fast enough, and the earth's surface would be scoured by a supersonic wind.

If the deceleration were gradual enough to prevent that, and you'd just have a planet that didn't rotate, the following would happen:

- hurricanes and tornadoes would no longer be able to form. It's the coriolis force that allows them to form, and that force comes from the rotation of the earth.

- the earth would probably start to tumble through space. The earth's rotation causes it to act like a giant gyroscope, so that the north pole always points north. Remove the rotation, and instead of a spinning ball, you have a knuckleball, and the moon would start making it wobble.

- There would be no such thing as a geosynchronous orbit for satellites. Right now, a satellite can stay in orbit above a specific spot on the earth, because it can follow the rotation. No rotation, and a geosynchronous satellite would drop like a rock.

Answer 4

Since you have so many answers by now...I'll just add a few facts that no one else has mentioned yet. (All are true.) Earth is slowing down. A day now is 24 hours long, but when the dinosaurs went extinct 65 mil years ago, a day was only 22 hours long. When they first appeared a day was 20 hours long. The gravitational pull of the moon is helping to put the brakes on our spin. Also the moon is slowly pulling away from us, as we slow down. It was 3 times closer before (After forming) and the exchange of gravity (which also causes the tides) gets weaker the farther out you go. That's why the rate of decreased speed is lessening. Did you know that the Sun is also spinning on its axis? It takes about 26 days to go around once. If Earth was to stop orbiting around the sun (instead of stopping to rotate on it's axis) Our planet would then fall into the sun and be consumed by it. Don't worry...that won't happen either.

Answer 5

no, it would not fly off because of the gravity, but the outer crust, being a floating mass on the molten middle layers, would basically slide, which would be like one huge front end collision, I am sure the Earth is rotating much faster than 30 MPH, but you seen the crash test's of cars going that fast, now imagine it on a worldwide scale, as well as much of the water in the ocean would surge in the direction of travel, I.E. west, it would be a very bad thing..... Oh, I forgot, for your information, the Earth is gradually slowing down, I forgot how many years ago, I think the the age of the dinosaurs, there was actually 440 days in a year, and the universe is constantly expanding, but at some point, the expansion will stop, the universe will completly stop for a fraction of a second, then it will begin to collapse in on itself, this is called phase shifting, whice due to the electromagnetic specturm all the stars look blue because they are moving away from you, but once this happens, they will shift to the opposite side and all stars will look red, hows that bake your brain, but the sun will supernovae WAAAAAAAY before that happens, so anyway....

Answer 6

If the Earth stops its revolution suddenly but continues its rotation, every thing will be pulled towards the sun due to the loss of Earth's centrifugal force and then burned . If it stops its rotation but continues its revolution, then the weakly anchored things fly off some towards the sun and others outward into space or to the nearest planet such as Mars. This will reuce the mass of Earth which will eventually increase the revolution speed of the earth or the earth will be pulled towards the sun and still get burned.

Answer 7

If it unexpectedly stopped then we'd all proceed to pass at a tangent to the Earth's floor so we does not fly 'up', we'd fly 'alongside'. in all probability into the closest wall. Edited to assert that if the Earth stopped rotating one section does not be in perpetual darkness. For that to ensue it would ought to rotate in 3 hundred and sixty 5 days.

Answer 8

Big time. Our rotational speed is about 1200 miles per hour (Circumfrence of the earth is about 36000 miles, takes a 23H 56M 54Second for each rotation) You slam on the brakes- then reverse them that quickly- for a total speed of 2400ish miles per hour? Well lets do some math- the atmosphere is roughly 100 miles high into space so you, along with everything else on this plant- including several layers of top soil, and most mountain tops- would be in space in roughly 1/40th of a second.

If you go back and watch the movie- "Superman" is actually doing the "Star Trek Time Slingshot Effect" to go backwards in time. Unfortunatly for him, neither our planet or our own sun (In spite of Star Trek 4's appearance to save the whales) would work.

Possibly a black hole MIGHT be able to do it- so far, computer simulations have shown it would take 200,000 YEARS however for it to work.

Answer 9

No.

If you could theoretically instantaneously "stop" the earth from rotating everything on the surface would continue moving in a straight line with its last instantaneous velocity.

But the highest speed of anything on the surface of the Earth is about 1,000 miles per hour (at the equator) and this is way, way below the escape velocity. So no matter would actually escape.

It would, however, be a horrible mess.

Answer 10

I must admit I am stunned by the range of answers, half truths, lies, and insight. I am not going to name names, but those of you who think we will fly off are mistaken. Those of you who said the instantaneous stopping of the earth would create problems in terms of earthquakes tidal waves, high winds etc. get full marks. Those of you who think that a stop of the earth's rotation will cause us to fall into the sun or have synchronous orbit satellites fall from the sky need to review your Newtonian physics.

The mass of earth causes a curve in space-time that causes bodies to be attracted to it. The space-time curve created by the sun carves a "trough" through which the earth slides in the absence of friction. A similar trough is carved by the earth for its satellites, including the moon. If it stops rotating, then this does not change the curve of space. Satellites in geosynchronous orbit will leave their orbit points and start to rotate around the earth. Sometimes it hurts being a rocket surgeon.