If the world stopped turning?

Question

would we all fall off ??

Answer 1

Interesting concept! I wouldn't think that we would fall off. We are held down thanks to gravity, not to the centrifugal force, which theoretically would throw us out of the Earth. So if Earth stops spinning i think that what will happen is that the area that's exposed to the Sun will eventually burn and a lot of the animals, plants and humans would die, on the other hand the side that's not exposed to the Sun would freeze over.
That's what i think though, i may be way off!

Answer 2

I found some answers on different websites..I hope they're helpful...

1st website:
Yorgie Petersen from the United States of America asks:
What would happen if the Earth stopped spinning?

Firstly let me reassure everyone that the Earth will never stop. It will be boiled off into space by the expanding Sun long before that could ever happen. But let's just pretend: Those on the side facing away from the Sun would freeze, those facing the Sun would boil. The atmosphere would be thrown into turmoil, the correolis effect no longer would cause the predicted movement of the cyclones and the oceans. Nocturnal animals would be confused wherever they were. If you lived on the day side you would always be at work, and always asleep on the dark side. This is because time would be fixed - the earth isn't spinning.

2nd website:

Of course, this can't happen, but if it did, everything not attached would go flying off to the east, parallel to the surface of the Earth. The speed would depend upon your latitude. Only the people at the poles would be safe. You wouldn't go flying off into space because the 1000 mph maximum (at the equator) isn't enough to overcome gravity, which would still be present. If you survived, the resulting six month day and six month night would probably take care of you pretty quick.
Dr. Eric Christian

Answer 3

If the earth stopped turning suddenly, we'd all be knocked around the way people above have described.

Another effect would take a little time, but there would be climatic problems. Processes governed by the tides would be messed up, because we'd have far fewer tides, and the ones we have no would last days instead of hours. The side away from the sun would be in darkness for half the year and freeze. The side near the sun would have sunlight all the time and roast.

Answer 4

"fall off?" No. The rotation of the earth has nothing to do with gravity, which is what keeps us on the planet's surface. Gravity comes from the mass of the earth, not from it spinning.

Not that it would happen, but...if the earth were to "suddenly" stop spinning, everything not nailed down on it would try to keep moving, and everything would be a mess. It's the same situation as when you're in a car going 60mph and you hit the brakes, that sudden stop only happens to the car you're traveling in, your body's kinetic energy wants to have it keep moving at the same speed, so you lurch forward until restrained by the seat belt (or the dashboard!). But that's a straight-line motion, we wouldn't go flying off into space, gravity would still keep us on the planet.

Answer 5

hope turning means rotation of earth on its own axis. We won't fall off if the world stopped turning . there are two reasons that would stop the rotation of earth (a) either the earth moves away from its orbital (b)or the sun gets into another solar system. in both the cases the force of gravity of the earth won't be hampered.

Answer 6

We wouldn't fall off, but i wonder if the loss of centrivical force that is currently being applied to everything, being removed, would cause everything to weigh more? plus one day would be a year long and whatever season your side of the world was in would be magnified tremendously at that same time of year. maybe we would no longer have "day" and "night' but seasons called "mid day", dusk", "dawn", "midnight" and some new ones for the in between times. The moon would still efect tides but it would be alot longer between tides.

Answer 7

Depends. If it's a steady slow down - no. If it was immediate, we'd be flung off like a bug on a whip.

Gravity is what holds us on. The spinning actually causes centripetal force, that effectually would fling us off the earth - rather like riding a merry-go-round.

However, we would all bake or freeze depending on what time of day it stopped.

Answer 8

I would not have thought so.
Gravity is what holds us down and that is dependent upon more than the rotation of the earth. The moon would continue to go round the earth.

What an awful thought. I would have to either invest in daylight bulbs or blackout curtains and at the moment I cannot afford either!

Answer 9

See "Core" for a pretty graphic, Hollywood version of what might happen.

Otherwise, no we wouldn't fall off. Some of us would just spin a little faster to make up for it!

Answer 10

I heard once that if the world were to abruptly stop turning we and everything would fly at 300mph directly east. My numbers could be wrong but either way that would be crazy.