how fast is the world turning?

Question

in MPH

Answer 1

It turns 360 degrees in 24 hours... but you need to specify a specific point to know mph. For example at the poles, you aren't moving anywhere. Or at the core of the earth, there is no lateral motion.

However, assuming you meant on the surface of the earth, at the equator, you would figure your answer as follows:

Take the diameter of the earth (about 8,000 miles) and multiply it times pi (3.14159...). That gives you a circumference of about 24,901 miles.

Divide that by 24 hours and you'll figure that you would be going about 1,036 mph!

P.S. This leaves out any factor for moving about the sun or our sun revolving around our galaxy, etc. Plus, we don't feel like we are moving at 1,036 miles/hour because everything else near to us is moving at the exact same rate.

P.P.S. Regarding the Eric Idle song, "900 miles an hour" in the lyrics refers to *nautical* miles. Nautical miles are defined as 60 nautical miles per degree at the equator. 360 degrees x 60 nautical miles / degree = 21,600 nautical miles. Divide that by 24 and you get 900 nautical miles / hour. If you do a conversion, you'll find that 900 knots = 1036 miles / hour.

Answer 2

At the equator, a little over 1000 mph. As you move away from the equator, in either direction, the speed is lower. At the poles, it is 0.

Answer 3

The Earth rotates on its axis at approximately 1000mph at the equator. Since the Earth has a equatorial circumference of about 24,000 miles we divide our time zones into 1000 mile segments to allow for one rotation to be 24 hours.

Answer 4

Rotational velocity at equator = 465.11 metres/second = 1674 kilometres/hour = 1046 miles/hour

Eric Idle slightly underestimated it when he crooned:

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the "Milky Way".

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

Answer 5

Just over 1000mph

Answer 6

1042mph dude, we should be flying off the Earth as we speak.

Answer 7

2400