my son asks "why aren't we dizzy from the earth's rotation?"?

Question

the earth spins at 1000 miles per hour, so why aren't we dizzy all of the time?

my six year old son has asked me and i have related it to us being in a car. we drive at 70 or so mph and we aren't dizzy. he was fine with the answer but wanted to know exactly why.

Great drj......but I’m trying to explain it to a 6 year old.

Answer 1

Ask your son to turn around in a circle once per day. That is the rate of the earth spinning. One rotation per day. Did he get dizzy?

Spinning is angular speed or angular frequency( the rate it turns through an angle), not the speed, tangent to the circumference of the earth.

The earth spinning is improperly linked to 1000 mph. The earth spins one time per day. The surface velocity is 1000mph at the outer surface of the earth, but that is just like going straight at 1000mph.

The surface speed of the earth is undetectably with out a frame of reference. Just as speeding in a car...without looking out the window, you don't know if you are moving that fast. We only detect a change, acceleration. The earth spins so slowly, we don't detect the angular frequency as being dizzy.

Answer 2

How about actually answering the question people!

We move with the earth so closely that it's as if we don't move at all. It's related with inertia a lot. For example, if you drive in your car at a steady speed, you don't feel like you're moving, but if you stop suddenly, you will keep moving while the car stops around you.

So, us moving on Earth is like driving in a car. Imagine what would happen if the Earth stopped moving!

Answer 3

The earth isn't rotating fast enough to induce dizziness
the earth rotates 1 revolution per 24 hours

have your son stand and spin himself at that same rate
(1 complete revolution in 24 hours)

Answer 4

One is our own inner ear. Our ear (which gives us balance, and that dizzy feeling when it's disturbed) is used to the earth's motion.

But here's another thought. Your son has, no doubt, spun around fast enough to get dizzy. Ask him to spin around, slowly, so that he turns around once a day. Would that make him dizzy?

Alternatively, think of a merry-go-round going around once a day.

Answer 5

The end of the Maya calender is also the beginning of the astrological age of Aquarius in astrology and the precession of the equinox in astronomy. Coincidence? The universe has always intrigued our ancestors and with this many story's were invented to explain the unknown.

Answer 6

Our body has adjusted itself with this rotation and changing of days to nights and nights to days.
If we are in a country where day is of 10 hours and night is 14 hours and we move to another country where day is 16 hours and night is 8 hours then in the beginning our body will not get tuned to the routine and we might feel dizzy at day times but later on it will become normal.
Its the same question as someone asks why dont we get tired of breathing. Its a natural process and our body has accepted it as it is.

Answer 7

Because the gravity of the earth is equal wherevr
you are on the surface. Which means its not like we're on a globe spinning. its like we're just standing on a moving platform. Or, sitting in a car.

Answer 8

because it's like when you are driving in your car, if you look to your son in the back seat he is aparently still but you are both moving the same way the car is. The same happens with earth because it is also moving. He (your son) will get this. Don't listen to everybody (not everybody knows).

Answer 9

About 25 years ago, one of my sons asked me that very same question. I told him that the rotatin of the earth doesn't bother men. But, that is why all the women are dizzy. His mother called me an idiot. Today, my son tells me I was right.

Answer 10

because that rotation is all relative. we cant even tell that we are rotating since the earth's atmosphere is rotating at the same speed of the earth and gravity is pulling us down so therefore we are not moving relative to anything around us.