What would happen if earth starts rotating in the opposite direction ?

Question

If u look from the north pole side you can conclude that earth rotates in anti- clockwise direction.
I want to know what specific differrence will it make if earth starts rotating in the opposite direction (i.e. clockwise direction looking from north pole).
I mean will there be any changes in the climatic patterns , geographical oreintation earth etc. etc ....

Answer 1

Questions like this are an honest attempt to understand how the earth that we all see every day looks as a globe from the standpoint of space. If the speed of rotation is the same, it should make no difference except that the sun would move across the sky from west to east and the ocean tides would act differently. The climates and winds would all be the same. You might be interested to know that the earth's anti-clockwise rotation as it is has been found to be not constant but has been discovered - by means of highly accurate atomic clocks - to be slowing down a small fraction of a second each year. This has astonishing implications. It means that the moon must have been much closer to the earth at one time billions of years ago and the earth was rotating much faster than it is now. The life forms that existed then got much less sleep at night and those in the future will get more. The lost energy of rotation, you see, goes into pushing the moon into a higher orbit farther away by a very small amount. So there is something to this question that is real.

Added note: Maybe I was too hasty in answering this. The Coriolis force will change direction in air and ocean currents moving north (in the Northern Hemisphere) from east to west and this could mean some rather major impacts on winds and weather. The fact seems to be that life as it has evolved over the many millennia of its existence on earth as a planet is rather fragile and in a sense quite wonderful. Let's not think about what it would mean if such changes took place.

Answer 2

There are two ways to answer this question, the uh-oh way and the hypothetical way.

The uh-oh way involves having to apply the torque required to reverse the earth's rotation. It would be like standing on a playground merry-go-round that is suddenly stopped. Given that the surface isn't firmly glued to the earth's core, the forces involved would have devastating effects.

The hypothetical way would be if we ignored the transition and suddenly woke up one morning to find the sun rising in the west. Given that the earth's rotation is responsible for the Coriolis effect, weather patterns would be reversed in direction. This would mean that hurricanes will start heading towards Africa instead of the Caribbean, and the Pacific coastline of North America would need to brace for typhoons.

It would also reverse the ocean streams, meaning that Europe and California would be cooler while New England and Japan would be warmer. Because of the shapes and sizes of the continents, it would be hard to know how weather patterns would be affected in total, but this should be a sufficient start.

There wouldn't be any change in seasons as that is a product of the earth's orbit about the sun. In terms of geographical orientations, we would still likely use north as north unless the magnetic poles flipped. However, that would be a social convention only.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

* It would be one heck of a wicked ride during the transition. Everyone would experience weightless at the same time when the Earth reached the exact point of traveling in neither direction.

* Cars, trains, buses and other forms of land transportion would not make any forward momentum unless traveling at the speed of light.

* Effects of gravity such as sagging breasts and buttocks would be reversed.

* All of the beautiful women that left me would return.

* The English influenced countries of the world would be the ones driving on the right side of the road. Although, I don't have a scientific answer for their crooked teeth.

* Toilets would shoot water into the air when flushed.

* Butter would fall off your toast.

* Ice cream would never again fall off the cone.

* The Leaning Tower of Pisa would stand upright again.

* But those lovely women would still be jumping on trampolins on "The Man Show"!

Answer 4

The Prevailing Wind patterns of the Earth would reverse, having a drastic effect on climate. For example, those areas where winds blow from inland and are therefore dry would get moist winds coming from the other direction. Also, the Coriolis Effect would reverse causing the ocean currents to reverse. What used to flow warm would become cold. I wouldn't want to see it happen.

Answer 5

EARTH in REVERSE DIRECTION....!!!!Forget abt it you know , if earth stops rotating everything is gonna collapse...HELL will break loose....and if it rotates in opposite direction just that USA will be known as the Land of Rising Sun and sure thing Earth will just be an uninhabitated planet like Mars and co.........There won't be any mountains floods will be throughtout land no trees....vegetation lost mankind will be like endagered species....CLIMATE will be worse than ever it'll start deterorating....slowly Volcanoes will start erupting as a result of Tremendous Global Warming and just like I said It will be HELL!

Answer 6

You mean, after the chaos of reversing the global rotation died down? Ocean currents would flow from west to east, and the jet streams would also flow from west to east. A cold current would flow up the US east coast, instead of a warm one.

Answer 7

Well, we'd all fly off for starters. It's moving hellish fast. Everything else would fly off too. Trees, houses, water, rocks. It would be the end of life on earth. I guess it could never happen though ,so don't worry about it.

Answer 8

total cataclysm.

winds up to 500miles per hour
thunderstorms
tsunamis
mag field invereted
gosh, the poles might even shift.

this may happen if we got hit totally by a rogue planet, can be as big as the moon.

Answer 9

Nothing will happen. The sun will rise and set in the other direction.

Answer 10

number one that wouldnt happen b/c i do belive that the gravity and the movment in space is what makes us rotate but if that did happen everything would get fuc*** up the climate the ocean the seasons..