Where will I be 12 hrs from now (B)Hi guys...thank you all for the answer but i still have my doubts?

Question

The most common answer seems to be that "gravity pulls me and makes me remain over Japan"...but lets assume that I am hovering over the Equator and remaining over the Equatorial line the whole time...meaning the gravity remains the same through out....and I was of the belief that Gravity is directed towards the center of the Earth and not over any place in particular (JAPAN ) in this case....If I am right..then how can Gravity which is always directed towards the center of Earth...cause a drag effect that keeps me over Japan.....
Then another answer i got about being governed by the laws of nature...and flying form east to west and from West to east taking different time....isnt that right actually...isnt that the reason why aircrafts flying from US to India flies against the rotation of the Earth and not with the rotation of Earth...correct me if i am wrong.
I know I am wrong guys,that what I said is not possible!! but I cant find a explanation to this..thats why i am posting it ag

Answer 1

GOOD QUESTION MAN..

READ THE FOLLWING WITH PATIENCE:

The circumference of the Earth at the equator is 25,000 miles. The Earth rotates in about 24 hours. Therefore, if you were to hang above the surface of the Earth at the equator without moving, you would see 25,000 miles pass by in 24 hours, at a speed of 25000/24 or just over 1000 miles per hour.

Multiply by cosine of your latitude to see how fast the Earth is rotating where you are.

Earth is also moving around the Sun at about 67,000 miles per hour.


The Earth rotates once in a few minutes under a day (23 hours 56 minutes 04. 09053 seconds). This is called the sidereal period (which means the period relative to stars). The sidereal period is not exactly equal to a day because by the time the Earth has rotated once, it has also moved a little in its orbit around the Sun, so it has to keep rotating for about another 4 minutes before the Sun seems to be back in the same place in the sky that it was in exactly a day before.

An object on the Earth's equator will travel once around the Earth's circumference (40,075.036 kilometers) each sidereal day. So if you divide that distance by the time taken, you will get the speed. An object at one of the poles has hardly any speed due to the Earth's rotation. (A spot on a rod one centimeter in circumference for example, stuck vertically in the ice exactly at a pole would have a speed of one centimeter per day!). The speed due to rotation at any other point on the Earth can be calculated by multiplying the speed at the equator by the cosine of the latitude of the point. (If you are not familiar with cosines, I wouldn't worry about that now, but if you can find a pocket calculator which has a cosine button you might like to try taking the cosine of your own latitude and multiplying that by the rotation speed at the equator to get your own current speed due to rotation!).

The Earth is doing a lot more than rotating, although that is certainly the motion we notice most, because day follows night as a result. We also orbit the Sun once a year. The circumference of the Earth's orbit is about 940 million kilometers, so if you divide that by the hours in a year you will get our orbital speed in kilometers per hour. We are also moving with the Sun around the center of our galaxy and moving with our galaxy as it drifts through intergalactic space!

Hope that Explains...

Answer 2

I went back and read your original question, about flying straight up in a helicopter and letting the earth spin underneath you.

I think the answer to your question is inertia. Things in motion remain in motion, and things at rest remain at rest unless acted upon by a force. When you are in Japan, you, and everything around you, are traveling east at about 1000 miles per hour. Leaving the ground in a helicopter and going straight up doesn't change the inertia you and the helicopter and the ground beneath you have. You are still traveling 1000 miles per hour toward the east, as is everything around you. You will remain motionless with respect to the ground, and when the helicopter lands, you will still be in Japan.

Think about the Concorde, the supersonic airplane that flew from London to New York. When flying from London to New York, it took tremendous amounts of energy to remain approximately motionless while the earth spun beneath it and New York approached the Concorde.

If the laws of physics could be so easily broken by simply going up in a helicopter, don't you think everyone would be doing it?