Would the Earth start to spin the other way if everyone began to run in the opposite direction?!!?

Question

To the way it normally does, that is! And, I know the ocean would be a tiny hiccup - but, for the purpose of this question imagine all land mass is joined.

To all those who believe I don't have a brain etc, the question is meant to be funny - so lighten up for the love of god!
'There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.'
Oscar Levant (1906 - 1972)

Answer 1

Hi

Hmmmmm thinking.

I would have to guess NO. If there was enough push from the legs of people to do that, then as the earth spin started to slow down, it would affect the gravity and all the people would be so much lighter they would have no effect. Could be they might even float off the earth.

Just my thinking. Good question!

Bob

Answer 2

Hahaha, no...think of the earth like a football, the inner core spins whichever way it wants to independent of the motion of the outer layer. Even if 6 billion + people start running in the same direction.

I could add some looong scientific explanation here...k, here goes, the Earth spins due to the gravatational field exterted on it by the sun and the internal rotation iof its iron/nickel core, so unless u could affect that, the answer is NO!

Answer 3

No it wont.
From Newtonian viewpoint, the earth spins because of its initial angular momentum,and the mass of all people living on it is very small relative to its own mass,so the effect will be neglectable.

Using Mach's principle and it's consequences ,if the earth alone (far away from other matter) were spinning,there was absolutely no way of saying the earth is "spinning" because it constructs it's own geometry. In this case ,spinning doesn't mean anything and reversing it is nonsense!

Answer 4

if u think about it, if we ran in the oppostie direction, the earth would have to be spinning in the same direction as usual--think treadmill, ur running "forward" but the conveyor belt thing is going back.

now if we fan in the same direction, i still don't think we'd have that great of an effect if any b/c the earth still has a lot more mass thatn all of us put together. even if there were so many ppl on earth that we all had to stand next to someone, the earth is still denser than we are.

Answer 5

the two John Edwards or Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani did a sturdy interest after 9/11 and John Edwards has extra political journey. If Hilliary Clinton wins i'm leaving the rustic. i do no longer think of that we are waiting for a girl president. She particular did no longer use any uncomplicated experience staying with invoice Clinton.

Answer 6

the mass of the earth is very large compared to the mass of all humanity

the effect of humans running on the earth all in the same direction, would serve to slow down the revolution of the earth, but the slow-down that humans could impart by running would be too small to notice

I don't have time to do the math right now but I will try calculating how long all the people will have to run to slow down the earth enough to make the day one minute longer

I expect it to take many million's of years of all the earth's inhabitants running all the time to get that tiny slow down

Answer 7

The earth spins because it is revolving around the sun, and the solar system is revolving around the galactic sun. The forces are exponentially greater than anything that could possibly be produced on the surface of the earth.

Answer 8

Eva, the daftest act carried out by British politicians in the last few decades was in shutting down our old loony bins. When sense returns and they reopen these establishments I'll make sure you get a nice room with a view. God help us!

heavenlyhaggis

Answer 9

Key fact is that the TOTAL angular momentum of the Earth + us remains constant.

If we would run the opposite direction, some of the Earth's angular momentum would be transferred to us. Theoretically, in an extreme case all of its momentum could be transferred to us. We would be spinning and the Earth would stand still.

Problem is, as soon as we would decide to stop running, we would have to brake and transfer our momentum back to the Earth...

Answer 10

No - this would only happen if Superman himself were to fly around the Earth in the opposite direction to the one it was spinning in.