if the earth is spinning around surely if you threw a stone one way it would go for miles??

Answer 1

And if your frame of reference for measuring the distance were a fixed point in space, away from the Earth, you would be right.

OK, maybe not miles but perhaps as much as a mile. The surface of the Earth is moving about 1000 mph or about 1/4 mile per second. If your rock stayed in the air for 4 seconds it would go about a mile.

But we don't see that because we are standing on the Earth's surface and we are catching up to the stone at the same rate.

Answer 2

TheQ is only half-complete! The path of the throw clearly depends on the force of throw. Within the gravitational field all suspended objects in the space follow laws of gravity. The stone you threw actually followed that law, but being part of operating phenomenon you are not able to sense it. I have spent considerable time studying this phenomenon.A simple experiment you can do at home will help you to understand it, however feebly: If you have an old type phonograph machine, play it highest speed and while it is in full swing place a tiny ball or any thing of ight weight. You will then find that when the speed accelerates the object youb placed on the phonograph will tend to fly along the rotating mode.There can be many variations of this experiment which will eventually help establish the fact that gravitation works in one way only. More information can be obtained on this topic from a very useful encyclopaedia called the World Book{I think that is the correct name, please check with local library]. I am still continuing with experiments on nature of garvity and should soon be able to report more.A very good Q;thanks

Answer 3

You need to consider what is called your 'frame of reference'. If you threw a stone it might be in the air for, e.g, one second and land 20m away from you. In your frame of reference, which is how you see things, it didn't go very far. Now consider that the Earth is rotating about its axis and imagine how somebody not rotating with it would see things. The circumference is about 40,000 km and it spins once in 24 hours, so at the equator the rotational speed of the surface is about 1,700 km/h. As you move away from the equator multiply by the cosine of the latitude, so the UK is going round at about 1000 km/h. If the stone was in the air for 1 second then that is a distance of almost 500m at the equator. The Earth is also orbiting the sun at an even greater speed, so from a solar rather than terrestrial frame of reference the stone goes even further.

If you want another, possibly simpler, example of how changing the frame of reference effects things, imagine somebody sitting on a moving bus tossing something up and down. From their point of view the object goes straight up and straight down, but for somebody watching from outside the object flies in an arc, and is caught in a different place from where it was thrown.

Answer 4

That's the reason space ships are launched to the east; to take advantage of the free velocity given by the earth itself.
If you had very precise measuring equipment, you would find that a stone does indeed go further when thrown to the east than to the west.

Answer 5

No because you are spinning with it, and are contained in it's atmosphere In which gravity pulls directly down. you say this like you don't really believe it's spinning, but I ask you, why on earth would they make that up?

Answer 6

No, because the stone is rotating in the same direction as the earth, and at the same speed, before you throw it.

Answer 7

it doesnt travel for miles cause 1. air resistence 2. gravity these both affect the balence of forces

Answer 8

Good old mister gravity pulls it down.Now if you were to fire one out of a cannon.It would go further and guess who pulls it back down.

Answer 9

errrr. No !
Its a combination of the facts of gravity, that it takes 24 hours for the planet to revolve once and the fact that your ignorant to education.