This is a hypothetical question about space. Anyone please give your opinions.?

Question

If you had a pole that was planted in the ground on earth and it extended all the way into space, and then you climbed to the top of it. Could you feel yourself rotating with the earth as it spun, or even be able to tell it was spinning at all?

Answer 1

Hmm... that's a great question. I really doubt it though, since down here we cant feel it. I really don't know, but I don't think you good. GREAT QUESTION!

Answer 2

Actually, if your hypothetical pole extends far enough into space, you would have constructed a space elevator, which is one possible future revolution in space travel. Much research is going into building exactly such a thing, except that it will not be a pole, but a cable.

"How will a cable stay tight," you ask? The reason is the answer to your question. Yes, you would be able to feel the effects of the Earth's rotation. You wouldn't feel that you're spinning around in circles, exactly, but what you WOULD feel if you climbed high enough is that gravity was reversed and you were being "pulled" UP the pole. You'd have to hang on to it just as if you were hanging on to a quickly spinning merry-go-round at a children's playground.

You would start to notice this effect after you were higher than the altitude of geosynchronous orbit. (26,200 miles high, FYI).

Space elevators would extend well beyond this point with a weight at the end. The "centrifugal force" generated by the Earth's rotation would cause the weight to keep the cable tight. Climbing this cable would require much less energy than current rockets expend when launching masses into space. This would make space travel much cheaper and also make it possible to build much larger structures in outer space,such as starships.

Other than this centrifugal force, however, you really wouldn't notice that you were "spinning around" from up there any more so than from the Earth's surface. Your only other way to know would be to notice the path of objects across the sky around you.

Answer 3

You would only be able to tell that the Earth was spinning by watching the stars go by, or, if the Sun was out that time of year, (remember what happens to the length of days depending on latitude and season) you could see it going around in a circle in the sky every day. But you wouldn't feel the motion.

Foucault's pendulum was meant to test the rotation of the Earth in a manner somewhat similar to the way you describe. You might enjoy reading about it.

Answer 4

Whether one is up the pole, at the bottom of a hole, or on top of mount Everest, the angular velocity will still be 360 degrees in an earth day. There will not be any perception of whirling around.

At 1 revolution /day the centrifugal effects will not amount to much. After all the moon is held captive by the gravity of the earth so far beyond geo synchronous orbit.

Answer 5

On the surface you would make one rotation every 24 hours.
As the post got higher the distance increase and you would still do it in 24hours.
The farther you got out the "G" forces would decrease
When you reached 22.500 you would by as high as the geosynchronous satellites in orbit you would stay over the same spot on earth and be in free fall.
You could climb back down the pole,when you started down you would have to apply pressure to stop from accelerating
the last part of the descent would be as tough as the first part of it

Answer 6

Well i doubt you would be able to feel anything because earth spins so slowly... smoothly?... i cant think of the right word. I think of it this way, if the pole was shorter and the ground was still visible you wouldnt be able to tell the earth was spinning so whats the difference if it is longer. lol Nice question.. interesting actually..

Answer 7

do you mean that the pole is at the well pole? or at the equator?

if it was at the equator you would think that you would feel more momentum as you are spun around at a faster speed than us down on earth are. much like two points on a record they both spin at the same rpm, yet the outer point will be moving faster.

Answer 8

You would not feel yourself rotating.

When you are in a plane, and imagine the plane going at the same speed as rotation. You would not feel it at all. As a matter of fact, you would not feel it either if you just hovered at a fixed point above the earth either.

You body can only feel ACCELERATION--not velocity.

Newton's second law. You feel no forces unless a force acts on you.

If you are sitting on a pole, you feel nothing unless something exerts a force on you.

Answer 9

my answer- definitely due to the laws of motion. the outside of a spinning object will spin faster than the inside. for example. if you went on a merry-go-round, the outside horses would be traveling faster than the inside ones. But you would not be able to feel it, technically, since there is not atmosphere in space, so no force is acting against you. My guess is that you will definitely be able to tell it was spinning, simply by looking, but you wont be able to feel it unless you hit matter.

Answer 10

Who needs a pole,lay on dry flat ground with your head east,feet west.You can feel the earth rotate.

Answer 11

You would see the motion of the stars just like you would on earth. You would still feel fixed to the earth.