How much will we weigh if the earth stops spinning?

Answer 1

Well, disregarding all the theorized catastrophic affects this would have; you're asking about the vertical Coriolis effect. The answer would depend on where on Earth you are.

When you are at the geographic North Pole (of South Pole) your weight would remain unchanged. Since you are rotating in place as opposed to spinning around the center of the planet, there isn't any centripetal force "pushing" you away from the planet.

At the equator, you would be experience the greatest amount of centripetal force, you actually "weigh" 1/3% less.

Something that weighs 300 pounds at the North Pole, weighs 299 pounds at the equator. If the Earth stopped spinning, it's weight would be the same in either location, 300 pounds.

edit: I had to add this because it's just not right.
Eagleflye- Earth's movement around the sun is revolution, not rotation. The Earth spinning, is rotation.
clark6561- Gravity is the measurable attraction between two things that have mass, it doesn't go away if something is spinning or not. This is NOT a stupid question, and you should be ashamed of yourself for belittling someone trying to learn.

Answer 2

A lot!! Weight is the result of a gravitational field, which Einstein showed was the same as acceleration. Because we are moving in our yearly orbit around the sun at a relative 10,000 miles per hour and the Earth's surface is spinning around at 1,000 miles per hour, relative to the sun, if the Earth stopped spinning, everything that wasn't nailed down (like the tectonic plates to start with), would fly off into space with incredible velocity. You would feel that you weighed a LOT because you would be instantly accelerated to 1,000 miles per hour. And then when you stopped, like when you hit what was left of Canada, you would feel very flat, as if a big weight had been dropped on you.

EDIT: Wasn't trying to make fun of your question. I really thought that's what would happen. Looks like I offended somebody. I thought your question was a great question. I still think it would be catastrophic though. If the earth stopped moving this instant. Our Earth spins, that's right. You are in a constant state of acceleration. If that stopped suddenly, I definitely believe you would feel it. Thanks for the question.

Answer 3

To be precise we would weigh the same as weight is W=mg which is not changing. But to your question, we would generally weigh slightly less: actually the same at the poles (no centrifugal force conteracting gravity) and slightly less moving toward the equator as the centrifugal force is increasing to its maximum.
We could say that this is not the full story as the earth isn't exactly a sphere but a 'geoid': slightly flattened at the poles and slightly swollen at the equator. So when determining the resultant of forces acting on a fixed body (i.e. what in the end we say is weigh) we should consider: latitude and longitude (your position) which influences both gravity and centrifugal force.

Answer 4

At the poles, weight wouldn't change. Centrepetal acceleration is given by radius of rotation times rotation speed squared. Rotation speed is 1 rev/24 hours and earth's radius is 6379 km for the equator, this works out to .085 cm/sec**2. Since earth's gravity is 980 cm/sec**2, at the equator the effect is about .01% of your weight.
The polar radius of the earth is 6357 km , so that difference from spin gives the earth a 22 km bulge in the middle

Answer 5

According to a physics formula discovered by sir Newton, which says that the gravity force(F(grav)) between 2 objects of mass m1 and m2 is given by: F(grav) = (G.m1.m2)/(r^2) where G is Newton universal constant and is G = 6.67 x 10^(-11) N.m^2/kg^2
The gravity force between the earth and a mass on it can be computed using this formula. In such case we shortly name the constant G.me/re^2 as g (gravity constant) where "me" is the earth's mass and "re" is its average radius. Simply according to this abbreviation we write F(grav) = W = mg, we name F(grav) as W (weight)
Now you can clearly find out that your weight is not depended on the earth's spinning. It is only depends on your pure mass and the constant g and no of them is varied due to a change on spinning velocity of the earth, even if the earth stopped forever!

Answer 6

actually if the earth did stop spinning we would actually weight more, since gravity depends on the mass of the two objects. also since we stop spinning, the centripetal force will be gone so gravity will pull us toward the center more

Answer 7

Actually the rotational speed of the earth is relativly unimportant compared to it's size, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't make a difference

Answer 8

We will weigh the same spinning or standing still. What weighs more a pound of feathers or a pound of lead? They both weigh a pound. However, some items are denser than others.

Answer 9

that would mean 0 gravity and the weight will be 0 or if some calestrial body starts to infleunce us, then we be sucked towrds the sky (-ve weight)

Answer 10

Depending on what latitude your at, probably an ounce or less.