Flying same distance at same speed along and opposite direction of earth's rotation - which takes more time?

Question

Aircrafts will be flying in the earth's atmoshphere which rotates along with the earth. Then flying along the direction of rotation of earth and the opposite direction should make some difference. Am I right?

Answer 1

it makes no difference,the plane is trapped in the earths atmosphere which is moving along with the earth at the same speed.

Answer 2

If I understand your question correctly, you're not asking anything about time zones, you're simply asking will a plane fly further in, say, 1 hour when flying westward than a similar plane flying for 1 hour heading eastward, because the planes will be helped or hindered by the fact the Earth is turning under them.

Is that right?

In other words - a similar idea to two people standing on an empty UP escalator. When they reach the halfway point, one starts running to the top, the other starts running back down to the bottom. Obviously, the one running up (in the same directions as the escalator) will get there much quicker than the person running down because they are running with, or against, the movement of the escalator.

With planes flying around the Earth I think the answer is no, for the very reason you gave - the Earth's atmosphere rotates along with the Earth. If you were at the equator the Earth's rotation would mean that you'd be moving at approximately 1000 mph. If the atmosphere did not rotate along with the planet, it would be awfully windy!!!

When the planes took off they would both also be traveling eastward at 1000mph + or - their speed. Newton's first law states "Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it." Since the atmosphere is also moving eastward at the same 1000mph it won't have any effect on the planes' speed (beyond normal head- and tail-winds, of course) so they would land again doing the same 1000mph + or - their speed.

There are probably other factors involved, but I'm sure they would be tiny.

So, I think the answer is that no, ignoring things like head- and tail-winds, etc, a plane flying due west will cover the same distance in the same amount of time as a plane heading due east.

Answer 3

If you start in the middle of the day it will not get dark unless you slow down or speed up. Conversly if you start at night the sun will not rise because you'll continually be on the dark side of earth. There is one gotcha here though. A full day/night cycle will take place exactly one time if you maintian this speed for a year. Secondly, it is possble, though difficult to do within the atmosphere. The earth's circumfrence at the equator is 24,409 miles. 24,409 mi / 24 hours = 1037.58 MPH needed (faster than the speed of sound) Few aircraft can achieve these speeds and none can maintain them for more that a few hours. Out of the earth's atmosphere these speeds are easily achived, (getting out of the atmosphere and into orbit is the hard part) and are regularaly achived as you mention with geostationary and geosynchronous satelites, just in different directions. You don't really travel backwards in time. Time still passes in the same manner. According to rules made by man your time would stay constant. That is, if you started and 3:00 and flew for three hours it would still be 3:00 on the portion of earth you are over. Crossing the international dateline would keep you going forward in calandar days even though you never pass midnight. (unless you maintained for several months) One more Gotcha. Accoding to relativity time actually does begin to warp very slightly at those speeds. Barely measurable amounts, but measurable none the less. If you want to be super technical you would travel into the future!!!! Wow, cool huh! The only problem is you travel into the future only nanoseconds or less, nothing that you could recognize as the future. You don't really need 1000+MPH for this, start going north and the speed goes to zero as you reach the north pole. Atmospheric friction shmiction! Or say you walk 3 mph for one day 11 miles from the north pole, you'll achive the same effect. There's lots to think about. Have fun and good luck. EDIT: a couple of additional comments. Your time as would be measured by a sun dial traveling with you would reain stationary. Additionally, going by time zone rules tje time as shown by clocks on the ground directly below you at any given time would repeat the same hour over and over. 3:00pm 3:15pm, 3:30pm, 3:45pm, 3:59 and then back two 3:00 again. Also, You will only see the earth rotate 1 time per day no matter which direction you travel. Not two.

Answer 4

Since speed is measured by evaluating the time taken to travel distance covered relative to the Earths surface, it makes absolutely no difference which way you travel. However, if you were to fly outside of the Earth's gravitational pull, i.e. in space, then it would be much quicker to fly in the opposite direction to the Earths rotation to fly around the world. This does however throw up the question as to how speed is measured in space.

Answer 5

No. The time is a relationship. You state speed AND distance is equal.

I think I'm saying this correctly but you can check it yourself. Fly with time - against earth rotation - and you "gain" time, time passes "slower". Fly against time - with rotation - and you "lose" time, time passes "faster".

So, flying East on a 4 hour flight takes - for sake of argument - 6 hours, but fly West and the same flight takes practically no time at all. Or so it appears based on your departure and arrival times - locally! Real time has been recorded by your wristwatch.

The time spent in flight, is only relative to time on the surface. Flying for 6 hours - in any direction - will never become 4 or 8 hours, 6 hours is always 6 hours.

Answer 6

I would think so. If you're flying against the rotation of the earth, it should in theory be "quicker" (as in take less time to fly what is ostensibly the same distance), but I think you'd have to be flying a fair old distance to make a significant difference.

Answer 7

no you are wrong distance covered is governed by the speed of the aircraft, which you have alredy said is the same.
its irrelevant
what would be relevant is any winds encountered whilst flying (a tail wind will increase the speed of the aircraft, a head wind reduce the speed. The aircraft will still fly at the same speed through the air, just that it will cover less distance
eg speed through air 300Kts, Tailwind 50Kts effective speed 350Kts
speed through air 300Kts, headwind 25Kts effective speed 275Kts

however if you rephrased your question to say distance covered on land then you would have a point, however air conditions would still be relevant.

Answer 8

The earth is not actually rotating for an earth observer. This comes into effect when you leave the earth. Airplanes travel in earth's atmosphere which spins with the earth.

it's all relative motion! :)

Answer 9

Yes, its got to do with the jet-lag phenomenon. Also you need to examine your question a little closer. What is the real question. Yes you will stand still regarding time in theory. I mean your watch will be ticking but you are entering different time zones. Then theres the aspect of time that is constant which we cannot change.

Answer 10

Depends on if you cross the international date line from west to east or not?