if the earth rotates @ 18000 mph & the spaceship is moving east @ 18000 mph isn't the spaceship standing still

Question

I don't know the speed the earth rotates, I'm using 18000 mph as A benchmark. News reports will indicate the ship is traveling at A certain speed I E 18000 mph in an eastern direction and the world is moving west at 18000 mph wouldn't the spaceship have to standing still.

Answer 1

Kind of, but you have it backwards. The space ship must have some orbital speed as measured against the fixed stars to maintain orbit, but if it orbits the SAME way as Earth, then it can seem to stand still from Earth. That is the way that geosynchronous satellites are able to hover above one single spot on Earth, seeming to stand still in the sky.

Answer 2

Yes. I think it's called a synchronous orbit. The spaceship would have to be moving at the same rate the earth turns to stay over the same spot. That would be 1000 mph, given the circumference of the earth being approximately 24,000 miles. You would trace one complete circle against the background sky every 24 hours, just like the earth. However, the spaceship would have to be a long distance from the earth to remain in orbit because at 1000 mph it's only traveling at .277 miles per second. To stay in a low earth orbit, by comparison, you'd have to move at about 7.5 miles per second to remain in free-fall. But it's all relative. The earth isn't "standing still," it's orbiting the sun, which is orbiting the core of the galaxy, which is gravitationally bound with our local group of galaxies, which are moving towards a cluster of galaxies in the direction of the constellation Virgo, and on and on.

Answer 3

Well...the orbital path of the spaceship is going to be longer than the circumference of the earth, so the spaceship is actually going to have to move faster than the earth to maintain a fixed orbit over a certain point on the earth's surface. That's simply because the spaceship is further away from the earth's center than the surface of the earth is.

But assuming that the spaceship moved fast enough to stay over the same spot on the earth's surface, then it would appear to be standing still to a person on the earth. The spaceship would not actually be standing still - the astronauts would constantly see a different view of space (just like we do on the earth). But to someone on earth who could see the spaceship, it would appear that the spaceship was stationary.

Answer 4

Actually, an observer on the earth would see the spaceship move. An observer further out in space who could see both the earth and the shi0p move would say that the shi is stationary.

Of course, "stationary" is a relative term. It's impossible to achieve a state of being "truly" stationary because there is no point in the universe from which to observe such a thing; you are always moving relative to some other observer.

Even in the scenario above, remember that the earth and ship are both orbiting around the sun; and that the solar system is orbiting slowly around the center of the milky way galaxy, and that further, our galaxy is drifting away from every other galaxy in the universe.

Answer 5

The earth doesn't rotate at 18,000mph.

It rotates basically once per day. The earth is a between 24,000 and 25,000miles in circumference at the equator....So a little more than 1000 mph.

For a satellite to orbit slow enough to stay in synch with the the earth's rotation it must be placed at a distance of about 22000 miles above the equator.

I think that pretty much answers your question.

Answer 6

okay, first of all the earth rotates at 1000 mph east. If a space station was traveling at 1000mph west it wouldn't be going anywhere. If the space station was traveling 1000 mph east it would go double the speed it was designed to go

Answer 7

no...put your self on a bicycle riding around at 10 mph in the opposite direction of a carousel traveling at 10 mph....are YOU standing still?

Answer 8

No, the spacehip is not standing still. Did you take into account the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun?

Answer 9

no, niether the earth or the spaceship is standing still, both are moving in opposite directions

Answer 10

if it were traveling the same direction as the earth it would appear to be in the same place from us. If it were traveling in an anti-geosyncronous orbit, than it would merely appear to be travelling 36000 mph from our perspective.