Why if you go up in a helicopter and hover for 12 hours will you not end up on the other side of the world?

Question

If the world rotates every 24 hrs, one should be able to go up, hover, then come down and be in India in about 12 hrs. Do we need to be in space where the earth's gravity and atmosphere have less of an effect on us?

Answer 1

NO.

Keep in mind that not only is the earth moving, but the atmosphere is moving with it. When a helicopter hovers, it is maintaining it's position in the air which is moving at roughly the same speed as the earth. If the air didn't move with the ground, we'd always have about a 1000mph wind blowing by.

Answer 2

If you are hovering above the ground you are keeping pace with the ground which is rotating at 1000 miles an hour at the equator. You would either have to actually travel at 1000 miles an hour towards the west, or hover directly a few feet beside the north pole. In that case in 12 hours you would truly wind up on the other side of the Earth ( north pole or south pole)

Answer 3

wen u hover in a helicopter u will b staying over the same point on earth i.e. u will b hovering over a certain building.
so even if the earh is rotating u will just b hovering over this building and wont go anywhere.
if u were able to truly stay stationary in 1 point in space u wud end up in india or wherever but it could not be practically done in a helicopter.

Answer 4

Because you said hover, taht means staying over the same spot.

This is a problem with momentum.

When you launch a rocket you are sending it up at an angle with an upwards momentum. Once you get it up there you have to set the momentum to follow the earth or orbit the Earth.

A body in motion tends to stay in motion in the same direction.

Taking a helicopter UP changes their momenut to upwards.

Hovering requires stablizing and obtaining a REALATIVE stationary possition with the moving Earth.

It is virtually IMPOSSIBLE for the helicopter to slow or speed to the speed of the Earth.

The Earth rotates at 22,000 MPH and the helicpoter travels at 22,000 MPH + up to 40 or 50 miles per hour in additional momentum.

Einstein says we acclimate to motion. He used an elevator as an example. You feel the tug of gravity and G force as it starts to move, but you quickly aclimate and don't realize you are moving upwards at 2 feet per second.

You don't realize you are moving in an Easterly direction at 22,000 mph. You "think" you're motionless.

If the Earth were to stop moving dead in it's tracks you'd be smashed against a wall in your house at 22,000 miles per hour as YOUR momentum will not change. You will fall in the direction of backwards momentum and slam into the wall at 22,000 MPH.

Answer 5

You'd still be bound by the Earth's gravity even in the air, just as satellites in space are still bound by Earth's gravity. Furthermore, if you "hover" it means to stay in one spot. In which case you'd be moving with the Earth's rotation, just as if you were stood on the ground.

Answer 6

When you hover in a helicopter you remain over one spot, you are going nowhere.

Answer 7

No, the helicopter carries the momentum of the movement of the earth underneath.

And you can only hover in a helicopter in one place for a few minutes, it'll eventually create a vacuum above the helicopter and make you crash down to the ground.

Answer 8

It would ,if the wind moved upon the earth as such. In aircrafts there is a ground speed and an air speed that is measured. The Air speed of an aircraft may be very high ,but its ground speed could reach zero.That means its flying but going nowhere.

Answer 9

Remember that the helicopter always has an angular velocity even when it's sitting on the ground - that angular velocity is equal to the angular velocity of the earth's surface. So when it goes up, it has that same angular velocity, because of conservation of momentum.

Answer 10

i think you have to go up pretty high, beyond the earth's atmosphere to accomplish that. A helicopter is still subjecting to earth's gravity pull.