Where does the earth get its energy to keep rotating?

Question

If the law of thermodynamics prove that Perpetual Motion is impossible, why does the earth and other planets keep rotating for thousands of years?

Following this model, can we say that if a magnetically levitated object inside a vaccuum would spin forever?

Answer 1

That'd be billions, not thousands.

They continue to rotate not because they have plenty of energy to do so. Rather, they rotate because there is so little friction in space that there is nothing to stop them from continuing to rotate. Nothing's slowing them down or dragging them down. Remember Newton's first law.......which states in part....."objects in motion continue in that motion until acted upon by an outside force". If anything doesn't have an outside friction force acting on it to slow it down, it just keeps on going.

But......they do slow down some. The explanation for that is way too complicated for you, though, as you haven't yet mastered the whole concept of "inertia".

Answer 2

You have asked a very fundamental question. Why does the Earth rotate? Because whatever it arose from--probably a cloud of gas and dust--was rotating to begin with.

The thing to keep in mind that even a very slow rotation of a cloud of objects gets greatly speeded up as it condenses at the center. The reason is a basic law (a consequence of Newton's laws of motion) by which a quantity known as ANGULAR MOMENTUM (or rotational momentum) is conserved. The angular momentum can be defined as the average radial distance, TIMES the average velocity of motion, TIMES the mass.

The mass does not change when matter collects near the axis of rotation, so we neglect the last part. Then, if the material collectes in the middle, where its average radius of rotation is 10, 100 or 1000 times smaller, the average velocity of its particles increases by the same factor.

You see this happen every day. When water drains from a filled bathroom sink, even if the water in the sink is rotating so slowly that you do not notice, by the time it reaches the drain it is spinning rapidly enough to form a funnel. (It does not spin in the opposite direction in Australia: the effect on which this claim is based is far too weak to have much effect. See "Stargazers," section 24). You also see this in hurricanes and tornadoes.

And you see it happen when a large object in space collapses. In 1054 a star "went supernova" in the constellation of the Crab, a process in which the top layers blow off and the core collapses to a tiny "neutron star," perhaps 15 km across and as massive as the Sun. The collapsed core of the Crab Nebula apparently rotates 30 times a second, because that is the frequency at which it blinks in x-rays and radio (and I believe in its light, too).

In the solar system all planets orbit in the same direction and nearly in the same plane, and they and the Sun rotate in the same direction too (= counterclockwise, viewed from north). This suggests that they all condensed from the same cloud.

Answer 3

The energy came from the origina rotation imparted during the formation of the solar system.

It still rotates from that time, billions of years ago because there is very little in interplanetary space to slow it down by friction.

There is nothing in the laws of thermodynamics that states the perpetual motion is not possible. Theoretically, it is very much possible in a situation where there is no friction.

Answer 4

perpitual motion in large terms probably means 10000 billion years. so youre right the Earth wont keep spinning, it'll stop someday (trillion years into the future). lol

Answer 5

Newton said "objects in motion stay in motion." Since its moving, it stays moving...there is nothing to stop it down, no friction (on the large scale)

Answer 6

inertia in a frictionless enviroment. a body in motion tends to say in motion. which is renewed every 6818 years by TheFORCE, that causes it all to happen, again and again to the third and fourth again.

Answer 7

because the giant monkey who spins them never gets tired, and if the monkey would get tired the dwarfs would come to help

Answer 8

TYhere is not much around us to stop it turning so that it just keeps turning.

Answer 9

I BELIEVE THERE IS A HIGHER POWER BEHIND EVERYTHING IN CREATION.ASK THE SAME QUESTION ABOUT AGAMA RAYS,SCIENCE IS VERY LIMITED WHEN IT COMES TO REAL KNOWLEDGE

Answer 10

Gravity from the sun maybe????