Why don't we feel the earth moving ?

Question

Like, when in a car or a bus , we feel the vehicle moving no matter at what speed it might be moving.(say for example , 60 km/hr)
Then, why don,t we feel the motion of the earth although we are rotating and revoluting at a very fast speed? please ELUCIDATE !!!!
thanks!

Answer 1

Because its speed relative to us is zero. In other words, we are moving with it.

Answer 2

At the equator, the Earth is spinning at 1000 miles per hour about its axis and moving at 67,000 miles per hour around the Sun. With all this motion, you would expect to feel something, right? Well we don't feel anything because all of the motions are almost completely constant.

When you take a really smooth plane or train ride, you don't feel the motion unless the plane/train slows down, speeds up, or hits a bump in the road. So as long as there is constant motion, we don't feel it. Children do amaze me with their ability to perceive things, but I would be very surprised if your daughter could feel the slight wobbles the Earth has as it spins. I don't think the wobbles would be enough (could we feel them) to make someone dizzy.

There is also another way in which we could indirectly feel the Earth's spin. Above we said that the Earth spinning is an example of almost constant motion. The reason we said "almost" is that the Earth's spin carries us around in a circle, not in a straight line. It's a very big circle, and it takes a long time to go around, but qualitatively it is the same thing that happens on a spinning amusement park ride, where it feels like you're being flung outward as the ride spins around. The spinning Earth is flinging us away from its surface a tiny bit, so that we weigh a little less than we would otherwise, simply because we are not being held down to the surface as tightly.

However, this is a very small effect. At the equator, your weight is reduced (compared to a non-spinning Earth) by about 0.3%; the effect weakens as you go north or south, and once you reach the north or south pole it disappears completely because the Earth is not spinning there. So if you can feel differences in your weight of 0.3% (about half a pound for a 150 pound person), and if you travel from the equator to the north or south pole, then technically speaking, you could feel the effects of the Earth spinning. On the other hand, people's weight naturally fluctuates more than 0.3%, so it's unlikely that you'd be able to disentangle this from other effects (like whether or not you had just eaten lunch).

Answer 3

The rotation takes one day to go around once, so that is way too slow to feel dizzy.

We don't feel the speed because there is no shaking. You only feel the bus moving from the shaking as it moves over the road. An airliner goes 10 times as fast as the bus but doesn't feel like it is moving at all because it is such a smooth ride. The motion of Earth in space is even smoother than that. Totally smooth, no bumps or shaking at all.

Answer 4

it all do to the relations of us to the earth. when a car is accelterating or decellerating we are feeling the force of the car moving under us, when a car is going a constant speed on a perfectly smooth land we feel no movment at all. same deal with the earth. It is in a constant rotation and not gaining or losing speed at a noticable pace. thus we are moving at the same speed along with every thing else on the surface and the air in the sky. Which moves at a diffrent rate. Thus we have wind.

Answer 5

Because you are moving at the same speed. When you are in a car or bus you notice changes in speed and direction but if you were not being jolted around by the bumps in the road you would not feel as if you were moving unless the vehicle accelerated or slowed down.

Answer 6

The Earth is not bumpy as it moves. What you may be feeling in a vehicle is accelerations and decelerations, which is not happening with the Earth (Well, it IS decelerating, but VERY VERY slowly). Since you, being fixed to the surface, are moving at the same speed, you sense no motion.

Answer 7

You mean, you don't feel the Earth moving? What do you mean?

Wait. Right there... there it goes! Swoosh!

C'mon. You don't feel that?

Aw, forget it...

Answer 8

we are moving with the earth so we dont feel the motion. when in a car we see things pass us by and feel our acceleration "push" us against our seats. i can "feel" the earth move because i look up at the sky and understand where things are in the sky. i know that the sun is "basically" standing still. so when i watch the sun move through the sky i know that its really the earth moving, and when i see the constellations change from month to month i know its because we are going around the sun. if you look up and think about what you are seeing you can feel the earth move too.!!!!!!

Answer 9

We do not really feel movement. What we feel is changes in speed. Acceleration and deceleration. If the Earth sped up or slowed down we would definitely feel it.

Answer 10

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=665