what would happen if it suddenly stopped?
2006-10-12 05:01:10 · 13 answers · asked by daka 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Hi - you left an abusive message on my question about cat wee. Just so you know, I haven't rated anyone's answers as good or bad as I'm a new user and can't yet leave ratings. So those thumbs-down things are from other users, NOT from me. I'd appreciate it if you kept your abuse to yourself in the future and stop writing in capitals - it comes across as very rude. And my house is perfectly clean, thank you very much. My pram was in the garden.
2006-10-12 22:17:49 · answer #1 · answered by Sarah P 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm going to answer this from the standpoint of gravity. Why do people continually believe that we'd all start floating in the air and gravity would stop, etc. This is the complete opposite of what would actually happen.
Gravity is created by mass, i.e., the Earth itself, not the rotation of the Earth. The Earth's spin creates CETRIPETAL FORCE which acts to counter the gravitational force of the Earth. This is why we can walk and run and play, etc, etc.
Without the rotation and centripetal force the only thing we will have is gravity (the relative effect is far greater not less). Now I'm not sure exactly what the effect would be but it might be as severe as everyone suddenly being crushed into the ground. Bones snapping, etc. Our weight would increase as the gravitational constant (9.81 m/s/s) would increase.
This argument does not take into account other factors such as one side of the Earth roasting in perpetual sunlight and the other freezing in eternal night and all the rest.
2006-10-12 14:24:04 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is a short term and long term effects. Short term is the stopping process. It will be like an earth quake but million time more. So none will survive that. But for argument sake if we have survived the long term effects will set in. Since there will be no 12 hr day or 12 hr night instead we will have 6 months day and 6 months night due to the orbit around the sun. SO temperatures will not be the same as we have now. But there may be some marginal area we may find some comfortable temperatures near the poles. few Eskimos will survive an continue. rest of us will die of starvation and being cooked.
2006-10-12 13:03:18 · answer #3 · answered by Dr M 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Everyone and everything would be thrown violently to the side and up into the air. Then we'd land. You see, the ground would stop, but everyone on it would continue to move at the previous velocity. That means we'd be moving quite quickly (moreso near the equator), and also tangentially to the surface. As we continue to move, we'd soon be above the ground if not stopped by a fixed object. But we wouldnt' be moving at escape velocity; if we were, then we'd fly away even while the Earth was turning beneath us. As a result, gravity would then pull us down. Nothing would happen to gravity, because it's caused by the Earth's mass, not its rotation.
After we'd all landed, our world would be different. The cycle of day and night would no longer be caused by the Earth's rotation, now nonexistent, but by its motion around the sun. The Earth wouldn't rotate on its axis anymore, but over the course of a year each part of the Earth would face the sun. So even without rotation, we'd still have days and nights, but each would last six months at every point on the Earth, as is currently the case at the geographic poles. The lunar tides, also, would no longer be governed by the Earth's turning on its axis. Right now, we have high tides when each point on Earth faces directly towards or away from the Moon, which happens every 12.5 hours due to the combination of Earth's rotation and the Moon's orbit. Without rotation, the lunar tides would be controlled only by the Moon's orbit, so we'd have two high tides and two low tides every month instead of every day. There is also a solar tide, with half the strength of the lunar tide, and it would now cycle twice a year instead of twice a day.
2006-10-12 12:05:52 · answer #4 · answered by DavidK93 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
At the equator the earth spins at about 1050 MPH. Imagine if you were in an airplane traveling at 1050 MPH and it suddenly stopped (hit a mountain). What would happen to everything and everyone on board? SPLATT.
The effect at the poles would not be as great, as the angular momentum is far less than 1050 MPH.
2006-10-12 12:14:25 · answer #5 · answered by Da Judge 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Uh oh....
I think bad things would happen. I think things would do a bit of flying off (not completely, but staying within the atmosphere). The seasons and weather would certainly change, too.
2006-10-12 12:06:17 · answer #6 · answered by Jonny Jo 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
This question has been asked and answered many times. You can do a search to see how this question has been answered and pick from those. I would suggest looking at my answer. It's one of the correct ones. I wouldn't believe anything that comes from "zeggy".
2006-10-12 12:27:42 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
We'd die from the heat or the cold eventualy, depending on the side in shadow and light.
2006-10-12 12:06:12 · answer #8 · answered by chicK 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Everything on the side facing the sun would cook. Everything on the other side would freeze.
2006-10-12 12:06:13 · answer #9 · answered by RATTY 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, we would all stop living or moving possibly.
2006-10-12 12:10:42 · answer #10 · answered by Andrea 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋