Polar shifts, and gravity loss...?

Question

When the poles finally do shift, and the Earth's rotation finally does reverse, does gravity disappear? Or is it maintained by rotation within the Earth?

Take a ball of any kind and make it spin on an axis... just flip the axis 180º and the rotation of the ball will be reversed but the rotation didn't ceased nor slowed down.

If magnetic poles change, the Earth would rotate, causing this effect. Not literally reversing.

Of course the poles have shifted in the course of history, but how could we possibly know exact details when we've only been around a VERY SHORT time considering the Earth's age...?! Why can't we accurately explain extinction of the dinosaurs?

Answer 1

Yes, you are confusing two or three things.

The North and South poles are defined by the Earth's rotation, and have nothing to do with its magnetism. There is no model of the Earth's past or future which includes any significant changes to them.

The North and South magnetic poles are defined by the net dipole moment of various loops of massive electrical currents in the metal core. They have no effect on the Earth's rotation, even if they weaken or reverse - as they surely do, every 100,000 or 200,000 years. They seem to be somewhat affected by the Earth's rotation, in that their net dipole moment usually lines up approximately parallel to the rotation axis. This is not much of a surprise for electrical currents in a rotating metal core.

Palaeomagnetic results identify the magnetic poles at the time a rock was laid down or erupted, but we always gathered a few million years' results for each rock formation, so that the individual magnetic poles would average out to the rotational poles.

Early results in palaeomagnetism were expressed as "polar wandering" relative to a fixed continent. But when the results from all over the world are gathered together, it makes perfect sense to interpret them as continental drift relative to fixed rotational poles.

Answer 2

you have confused quite a few theories into one gross miscalculation....

When the poles shift, that means the north/south magnetism swaps NOT that the globe flips 180 degrees.

The rotation does NOT reverse because the earth does not flip over only the magnetic poles swap position.

Gravity is not the result of rotation. Everything has an attraction to other bodies. In most cases the mass of the objects around us are not sufficiently different enough to cause an perceptible difference. Gravity is the result of the mass of the earth attracting the mass of everything on earth toward the center of the earth.

Centripetal force is what is trying to fling us off the earth and IF the rotation reversed, that might cause us problems. Like the sudden reversal of escalators. Some effects might be more catastophic than others. HOWEVER, since the rotation is not going to reverse, this is not a real concern.

Answer 3

Um...no.
1) Yes, the earth's magnetic poles have switched several times in the history of the planet. They are moving right now. Currently, compasses point to magnetic north which is near Prince something Island off the northern coast of Canada, not the North Pole at 90 degrees N latitude.
2) Even if the earth had no magnetic field, its mass would still cause a gravity well in spacetime causing it to exert a gravitational force. Gravity is a force of the universe caused by matter, the electromagnetic force is a completely different force of the universe. [The other two remaining forces in the universe are the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force. And, by far, gravity is the weakest.]
3) The earth will never start to reverse its axial spin. Okay, unless something drastic happens like another earth sized or bigger object hits it from the proper side/direction. But, then there wouldn't be much of a sphere or globe left to spin anyway.

Answer 4

Gravity is a function of mass, not rotation.
If the magnetic poles reverse, the rotation will continue as before. The compass will now point to the South pole, so it might be said that the Earth is rotating from West to East, but the actual direction will be unchanged.

;-D They will just print new faces on the compasses and go on as before.

Answer 5

Gravity is not caused by the rotation of Earth, but rather by the simple fact that Earth has mass. Therefore, any change in Earth's rotation will not effect Earth's gravity.

Furthermore, Earth's rotation will never stop, let alone reverse (but it is slowing down). Perhaps you are thinking about Earth's magnetic field? That will reverse eventually. But the magnetic field has nothing to do with gravity, either.

Answer 6

will the earth's rotation reverse? I think the poles magnetism does switch every ten thousand years or so but i dont think the earth will start rotating the other way.

Gravity is a function of mass not magnetism or the rotation of the earth.

Answer 7

Gravity is unrelated to rotation or magnetic fields created by the geologic properties of the earth's core.

Gravity is a function of earth's mass. Unless the earth loses mass, it will continue to have the same gravitational properties!

In fact, the earth slowly gains mass as particulate matter falls from space! I wouldn't worry too much about floating away any time soon. ;)

Answer 8

If this could happen, gravity would still keep constant, since it has nothing to do with rotation of the earth.

The earth mass is so dense that it attracts objects to its center.. Thats the fact that makes it a planes,otherwise it would just be an comet, astriod or similar type of space (deep sky) object.

Answer 9

Gravity is because of the earths mass, it's rotation has nothing to do with it

Answer 10

The magnetic poles have shifted many, many times over the course of history, with apparently little detrimental effect.

Like Jack Sparrow (Capt.), you'd have a compass that didn't point north!