How DID EARLY LIFE FORMS such as Dinosaurs and other Animals live on the planet 65 million years ago given....

Question

Ok I want to know If the Earth is 4.4 Billion years old how did Early forms of life sustain on such a Fast moving planet given the Fact that the Earth slows down at a speed of 2.2 seconds every 100,000 years? Becuase that would mean that the earth was spinning much faster 65 million years ago.


Speed of Earth Today is:1,061 Mph

MAth here
25000(Circumfrence of earth at equator)/23.56=1,061.12 mph

Rate of Slowing= is equal to 2.2 seconds every 100,000 years.

Speed of Earth 4.4 billion years ago= 4,147,031
Speed of Earth 65 million years ago=61,262

MAth here

4.4 billion years(aproximate age of earth) divided by 1,061mph=
4,147,031mph Thats FAST!
65,000,000 years ago/ 1,061 = 61,262 Thats still too fast..

I did this by setting up a Proportion, I am not sure if MY math here is Correct but I want to know why it isnt correct. IF I am correct I want to know How it would be possible given those numbers I showed my math so you can see how I got the numbers.

Answer 1

I think you are slightly mistaken in your thnking. . .

65,000,000 is 650 x 100,000 which means that at 2.2 per 100,000 years is only 1430 seconds per day, or about 23 minutes a day. I'm going to be generours and give you a full 30 minutes or a half hour.

Using your figures (not necessarly the right ones, you rounded off the circumfrence of the earth, and you treat 23 hours, 56 minutes as 23.56 hours), if we subtract 1/2 hour to 23.56 we get 23.06 so the speed of the earth would be (using your figures to get the highest speed) 1084.13 MPH.

Of course all this is irrelevant, the speed does not matter, what matters is the difference in the speed, and since everything on the planet is moving at the same speed relative to the spot they are standing on, we could go as high as 2000 MPH and they would not notice.

Of couse the days would be shorter. . .

Answer 2

You are using bad math from a bad assumption.

1. The length of a day *today* is NOT 23.56 hours/day. (A little more than 23 and a half hours!) That mistake alone should tell you that you need to check your math.
The length of the sidereal day is 23 hours 56 minutes = 23.93 hours.
But why not use the normal solar day of 24 hours per day?

2. I have no idea how you think the math is:
X num of yrs ago / speed of earth today = speed of earth X yrs ago
By this reasoning, the speed of the earth 1,061 years ago was 1 mph.

Simple math:
IF the rate of slowing has always been what it is today, then
day gets 2.2 seconds longer every 100,000 years =
day gets 22 seconds longer every 1,000,000 years =
day gets 1430 seconds longer every 65,000,000 years =
day is 23.83 minutes longer than it was 65 million years ago.

3. But braxton is also correct that you are using an incorrect assumption that the earth has *always* been slowing at a rate of 2.2 seconds a day every 100,000 years. That just ignores the *reason* the earth is slowing ... namely tidal pull with the moon. This is NOT a constant process, but one that increases the more the tidal bulge moves ahead of the moon ... and as this is a result of the rotation of the earth under the tidal bulge, this effect (the slowing of the earth's rotation) would be much smaller millions of years ago.

Answer 3

65 million divided by 100,000 = 650 (the number of 100,000 year periods elapsed since 65 million years ago.)

650 times 2.2 = 1430 (the number of seconds change in the period of the earth's rotation in 65 million years.)

1430 seconds is 28 minutes, meaning the earth rotated in about 23-1/2 hours 65 million years ago, which is only about two percent faster. So it would hardly be noticeable.

Your calculations are all out of proportion to reality because you have not grasped the concept correctly. You have potential, but you need to spend some time working with concept problems and deriving equations.

Keep up the good work, and best of luck!

Answer 4

Your arguement is based on what is known as the "Leap Second", and your math is right, however your assumption is wrong. The Leap Second is our tool to help keep time straight, since time (as we know it as seconds, minutes, hours, etc) is a human invention. We use the leap second to help keep time straight, since the earth doesn't rotate at exactly 24 hours and we don't revolve exactly 365 days around the sun.

Now, creationists have jumped on this ever since the Leap second was announced, twisting it into something that it is not. It by no way means the earth is slowing down at a constant rate. Yes, the earth does fluxuate it's speed, due to the moon and the orbit around the sun as well as comets, planets, and other objects in space.

Answer 5

I think the length of the day increases at .000015 sceconds per year or 1.5 seconds per 100,000 years. So 4.4 billion years ago a day would be:

.000015 x 4,400,000,000 = 66000 seconds shorter = 18.33 hours shorter.

So even if the speed of the earth was always slowing at the same rate for the past 4.4 billion years, the speed would've been:

25000/(23.56-18.33) = 4780.11 mph

and 65 million years ago it would've been 1073 mph. Not sure how you got the values that you did.

Answer 6

Here is your answer, Dinosaurs didn't exist 65 million years ago, it was more during our time. Yes, I know all the athiest and rebelious youth of religious parents wont like this, nor half my professors, but the dinosaurs existed while man was on earth. In the bible we read that there were giants in the time of noah, also that man was living to be about 900 years old, now, lets think if man could live so long, why didnt UV rays have more of an effect, that was because of an atmosphere with more water, causing things to grow larger and longer. Japanese proved this with their tomatoes in a shopping mall. Also lizards are known to not stop growing till they die. Now imagine some living to be almost 500 to 900 years old. They could get pretty big. Now what happened to them...a flood, not a meteor. Why take the big ones on board the arc when you can take small ones of the same species. This causes the mass killing of them, throws up layers of sediment, and causes scientists to think they are millions of years old by dating them through stratigraphy. Man is just too proud sometimes to think that all our tests of dating are fool proof. Just wait, will find out they are not too accurate, they have failed many times already. So in summary, the Dinosaurs lived with man, it explains why every culture in all four hemispheres had some kind of myth of dragons, yes dragons, the original word used for a large lizard. think about it. makes a lot of sence expecially with the math just given you by our freind.

Answer 7

Your math and reasoning are sound. However, you're assuming that the rate of slowing is linear, that it's always been 2.2 seconds/100,000 years. Such is not the case because the Earth is a dynamic system with its distribution of mass (..the continents and seas..) constantly shifting around. Also, much of the current 2.2 seconds/100,000 years is due to the recession of the Moon.

Answer 8

The word "dinosaur" refers to a specific group of terrestrial lizards that lived from 230-65 million years ago. Not only does this exclude all invertebrates, mammals, amphibians, extant reptilian orders (lizards, turtles etc) and crocodilians, but also flying lizards (pterosaurs etc.) and swimming lizards (ichthyosaurs and pliesiosaurs) that lived during this time period.

Answer 9

Regardless of our math equations and assumptions without having been there to witness these events we can't really be sure.It has been suggested that their eye sight was far superior to ours in such a way that allowed them to see in darkness or like other animals do today.The Moon might have been even closer and we may have even had more than one back then. Particles in the sky may have also added to brighter nights. Our concepts of growth years or periods may also be flawed.

Answer 10

Have you been taking amphetamines? You sound like a child who has just been prescribed WAY too much rittalin. Slow it down a notch. What are you getting at with this question?