if the rotation of the planet sped up what would happen to us ?

Answer 1

Depends on how much faster it got. Like someone else said above, Earth's rotation is slowing down (ever so slowly), and it once spun around once every 10 hours or so. So obviously the Earth can handle faster speeds. I'm not entirely sure how a faster rotation would impact the tides (other than having them come more often) or the weather - there would certainly be some effect. Messing with the weather is never good for the existing population, of course. I would imagine we'd get more hurricanes (since they are caused by the Coriolis effect), but I'm not certain.

One thing that we wouldn't notice change would be the strength of gravity. In order for us to feel 1 percent lighter at the equator due to the centrifugal force of Earth's rotation, Earth would have to spin once every 14 hours. For us to feel 10 percent lighter, Earth's day would have to be 4.5 hours long.

Currently, the speed of an object at Earth's equator due to Earth's rotation is roughly 1000 miles per hour (the circumference of Earth is about 24,000 miles, and we spin around once every 24 hours, so 24000 miles divided by 24 hours is 1000 miles per hour).

Answer 2

C'mon guy, let's think about this before answering.

For a start, lindajane is right! The earth is 24,901 miles at the equator. It takes 24 hours to complete a single rotation therefore the speed of rotation at the equator is ~ 1000mph.

There would be no increase in gravity as the mass of the earth and it's density would remain unchanged.

Centrifugal force does not exist! This is what scientists call a 'fudge factor' where they previously didn't know about something so made up the best explanation. There is no force which act is an outward direction like that.

In my opinion the main noticeable change would be purely meteorological.

Answer 3

No much, assuming the acceleration was low. The moon is actually slowing down the Earth's rotation, so in fact in the past the Earth WAS rotating twice as fast. In fact, when the Earth was formed the day was approximately 10 hours long. During the time of the dinosaurs the day was about 21 hours long. Assuming the sun doesn't swallow us, the moon will eventually slow us down to a rotational period lasting about 40 days, at which would we will be tidally locked with the moon and we won't slow down any further.

If you had a quick acceleration, that could cause havoc. On the other hand, the only thing that could significantly speed us up is if a body like mars collided with us, in which case the increased rotation would be the least of our worries.

Answer 4

If you mean if the rotation of the Earth were to speed up, it would depend on how much faster it spun.
Its rotating right now about 1000 miles an hour, so a few miles faster wouldn't do much except make the day shorter.
A little faster than that and we could have earthquakes, volcanoes, and tidal waves as the material of the Earth tries to adjust to the new momentum of rotation.
Speed it up to twice our rotational speed, and we would probably all die from the massive winds, earthquakes, volcanoes, and other weather events.

Answer 5

well, not only rotation but what about earth spinning on it's axis as well as rotation. rotation is around the sun as we know. so the earth spins at the same time. shorter days, less gravity. i hope this never happens. I'D HATE TO SEE THIS HAPPEN.

Answer 6

Centrifugal force (the force that tends to throw things away from center of rotation) increases with increase with speed of rotation. As long as it is less than Earth's gravitational force, we stay on the Earth. If speed increases beyond this, we would be thrown out into space.

Answer 7

Contrary to what other people have said, the only effect I can think of is that we would have shorter days and nights. It might affect the routine of some noctournal animals but I doubt it would have much of an effect on anything else.

Answer 8

We would just have a shorter day ! (Only 4 hours at work each day from then on ! Woo Hoo !!) And assuming the moon didn't speed up at the same time, lower tides as well.

Answer 9

we live in a world where the over slightest change in pressure, gravity, atmospheric density, tempurature etc etc wouldhave grave consequesnces to us.

a speeding up in the earth's rotation, gradual or not, would harbour our habitat unlivable; tides would become more violent and the wind would be far too strong, also we wouldnt be able to adjust to the change in gravity that would accur, and wewould find walking, moving difficult.

a slow and horrible death would consume us all.

mrben

Answer 10

Moon would move farther away from Earth, too. Conservation of angular momentum. No more total solar eclipses.... sniffff