suppose that you are moving vertically into the sky. you go up and up. when you see the earth moving under, you just wait for 2 hours in the air as the earth is changing location under you.
after 2 hours, you go back again to the world. does your location change?
2006-12-29 08:58:59 · 23 answers · asked by destinys child 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
see diagram for details:
http://www.jimri.com/files/6006/diag.PNG
2006-12-29 09:04:49 · update #1
Lots of really goofy answers here, most of them demonstrating the very severe ignorance and confusion of many of the people who write answers on this list. It is astonishing how little people understand about the earth and its atmosphere, simple geometry, physical principles in general, and just common knowledge about things. Unfortunately, this lack of knowledge doesn't seem to discourage people from displaying their ignorance.
Your words "moving vertically into the sky" tend to suggest that you are assuming that you possess some magical or mechanical means of remaining stationary with respect to the point at which you started when you rose from the earth.
If that were possible, then you could move (in relative terms) over the earth's surface by remaining stationary while the earth rotates under you. For example, if you started at Syosset, New York and remained stationary above your point of departure, the earth would rotate so that Monterrey, California was directly under you after about three hours.
In real-world terms, this is extremely difficult to do. The main problem is that the atmosphere moves with the earth. At the latitude of Syosset, the atmosphere is moving at about 800 miles per hour, plus or minus any wind that may also be blowing at your location. So to accomplish this trick, you would have to be able to resist that 800 mph wind to remain in one place relative to your starting point.
That's why we don't do that on an everyday basis. For a really much more comfortable trip, take a train.
www.amtrak.com
2006-12-29 15:28:08 · answer #1 · answered by aviophage 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
No because of the earth's gravitational poll. It pulls everything with it while it moves. Hence, when your driving a car going in the opposite direction of the earth's rotation, your still moving. You do not stay in the same spot. Likewise, if you were standing up in the earth's atmosphere in one spot, you would move with the earth where you started.
Think about it like this...if we stood in the atmosphere in one spot and the earth kept moving and we didn't need to move and a couple hrs later we would be in another spot, why would airplanes have to move? Why wouldnt an airplane just stand there until the earth is done moving and in the spot where the plane needs to be.
So the answer to your question is no it would not change hte location where you started off.
2006-12-29 17:12:44 · answer #2 · answered by precious02k 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Sure. As long as you are in the AIR, that is to say not in outer space, then the air will move you with the earth, adjusted for the wind. Once you go into space or so far up that the air is very very thin, then the earth will rotate away from you and your location over the earth would change.
2006-12-29 17:03:57 · answer #3 · answered by plezurgui 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
as long as you are in the atmosphere you are still locked down by gravity, the earth is not turning beneath you until you break free of earths gravity,
even then you will fall back to earth unless you enter an orbit,
which makes your question more philosophical than anything.
if a tree falls in the woods.....who cares?
NASA actually experimented with this back in the early 70's putting 2 atomic clocks in seperate crafts going opposite directions around the earth,
the effects of moving against earths rotation were something like 0.0062 seconds difference in the clocks.
( an astronaut on the space station for 6 months would be 4 seconds younger at the end of his trip ) " than he would have been had he been on earth.
2006-12-29 17:18:23 · answer #4 · answered by fighterace26 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Well astro physics isn't my forte but I would think that if you remaind static that is un moving relative to the earth then yes. Other wise you would be moving with the rotation of the earth and depending upon your relative speed your location would change only slightly.
2006-12-29 17:05:59 · answer #5 · answered by ikeman32 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No your location would not change. But if you penetrated the atmosphere and remained for two hours outside the ionosphere, then after descent you would be in a displaced location based on the two hour lapse of time in relation to the 24 hour singular revolution rate of the earth, factoring out ascent and descent time.
2006-12-29 18:40:37 · answer #6 · answered by . 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
The earth rotates 15 degrees every hour, so if you were not still in rotation with the earth you would move 60 degrees from where you started.
2006-12-29 17:34:24 · answer #7 · answered by nightshadyraytiprocshadow 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If you are levitating within the earth's atmosphere, then the answer is no in relation to earth. The atmosphere and everything within it move with the earth's rotation, at about 1000mph at the earth's equator. You will of course be in a different spot in the galaxy and universe in relation to them.
2006-12-29 20:03:24 · answer #8 · answered by Nick Name 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Your location will change, but not by much do to gravity. If you left the atmosphere than yes you'd end up somewhere totally different
2006-12-29 17:04:40 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes. Is that awesome? And when you stay in the air long enough when you decide to come back to Earth, you might be in China.
2006-12-29 17:10:07 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋