If the earth stopped and was perfectly still, what would happen to gravity?

Question

Not homework. Just for me. Thanks.

Answer 1

Nothing. Gravity has nothing to do with rotation - it is the attraction of one particle to another. So, all of the particles that make up the earth will exert the same gravitational force whether they are rotating or not.

There would, of course, be other, non-gravity-related changes if the earth stopped rotating. The shape of the planet would change slightly, since the rotation makes it "bulge" in the middle. That would lead to many earthquakes as the Earth's crust adjusted itself. Days and nights would become much longer, as they are now governed by the yearly trip around the sun, not the rotation of the planet. Weather patterns would drastically change due to the lack of rotation and the altered day/night cycle.

Additional info: I assume you mean that the Earth has stopped rotating about its axis, but continues to orbit the sun. Also, that you don't mean that the Earth has one face continually to the sun, which would mean the planet is still rotating, just once per year. I took "perfectly still" to mean no rotation in the frame of reference of the whole universe, not the sun.

Answer 2

Assuming you put the brakes on the planet very slowly (so we would not fly off like through the windshield of a crashing car!), nothing noticeable would happen to the gravity here. The force of gravity on something on the surface of the Earth is a product of the mass of the Earth, the mass of the thing on it, and how far apart the centers of mass of the two things are. It does not depend on whether we're actually moving through space.

I(n terms of relativity, something moving alongside the Earth in space would see the Earth beside it as not moving. All motion is relative.)

Answer 3

nothing because any object in space, that has mass, has gravity. When I say space, I mean from the ground your standing on to the boarder of the universe. Now ponder what everything would look like if the earth went from the speed its rotating now to absolute zero, instantly... Anything and everything would keep the momentium and continue. Pretend your on the east coast when this happenes... Youd cross the atlantic!!!

Answer 4

nothing at all...

Gravity exists wherever there is a mass... The bigger the mass, the bigger the pull. The earth is quite large and so it has a lot of gravity.

Of course, if the earth stopped completely, we won't all float away, but there would be another problem... we'd start getting pulled towards the sun and eventually burn up!

(The sun's gravity is constantly pulling us toward it, but becasue the earth is moving very rapidly, we simply orbit the sun... if we stopped moving, we'd have some nice hot weather for a while then get baked!)

Answer 5

Nothing. Gravity is a function of the masses of the two interacting objects and the distance between their centers of gravity.

The centrifugal force due to rotation only reduces weight of any given mass about 0.7% when compared at the equator to the north or south poles.

Answer 6

You would feel heavier. Rotation does counter gravity to seem extent. That is why the Earth is wider around the equator than it is around longitudnal circumferences.

Edited.

Answer 7

Steven D. is right on!