[Closed] if the world stopped spinning...

The world would separate into two warring factions. Those who suffer with S.A.D. And those who don't.

EDIT: Actually that's horseshit, sorry.

Iirc the biggest issue might be that the earths core was no longer spinning either and thus not creating the protective magnetic field around the earth. We would all then instantly frazzle.

Irrefutable science excellence there based on holywood movies and 1st year uni physics. 😆

HTH!

keV

I go spinning 3 times a week at the moment. If I miss a day I get a bit crotchety, I can't see it being much different for the world.

One side of the earth would get very hot, one side would get very cold. Gravity and magnetism would be fine.

Weather would be changed, as stated tides/day night. How quick is it going to stop? If it was an emergency stop inertia would probably mean the vast majority of land animals (and possibly sea animals) would be killed as they were flung into solid objects.

Gravity has absolutely NOTHING to do with spin, it's caused by any solid object. Bigger the mass the greater it's gravity well.

We would all then instantly frazzle.

Not sure if the magnetic field would be affected, and if it were, the frazzlin' would not be quite instant: the solar wind would gradually strip away our atmosphere, á la Mars. Then we'd be in the poo poo.

the vast majority of land animals would be killed

Polar bears and penguins should be ok (same [i]rotational[/i] speed as everyone else, but much lower speed compared to all those equatorial jaguars and that).

Interesting idea, OP!

Water wont whirl down the plughole any more. Weather systems will be radically different. If it's sun synchronous then one side will always be dark and barren.

Interestingly enough, if the world stopped spinning, everyone would weigh slightly more (unless you were standing at one of the poles).

This has nothing to do with your mass, nor gravity.

But yes, one side would get hotter and one side very cold. The cold side would be freezing, uninhabitable. I'm not quite sure how hot the hot side would get though. I wouldn't think stuff bursting into flames hot, but maybe. I imagine there will be a few lucky places that are in the perfect position and just have a nice warm steady temperature for the rest of time (until the sun dies).

Water wont whirl down the plughole any more.

Can't see the thinking behind this.

i remember reading some in-depth reports about this before.

Apparently if the earth stopped spinning suddenly, we'd all be ripped apart by the sudden stop in inertia......or something......I was a bit tipsy while reading it and can't be bothered looking for it again

Ive a feeling travelling at around 700 mph to a dead stop is gonna definitely have some inertia issue somewhere, the earth certainly aint using cheap pads to achieve that stopping power!!!

Apparently if the earth stopped spinning suddenly, we'd all be ripped apart by the sudden stop in inertia......or something......I was a bit tipsy while reading it and can't be bothered looking for it again

I think if it stopped near instantly, everything would suddenly be hurtled east(?) at ~1000mph.

Well that means you need to travel to the other part of the world to sleep ...

At the equator yup, further north or south you go it reduces to a speed of nowt directly on the poles axis. I think. However I am just a builder and may need to stick to reading the sun!

Water wont whirl down the plughole any more

The whole water swirling and hemispheres / the coriolis effect is an urban myth. What makes water swirl is standing currents in the water caused by disturbances when you poured the water in from the taps and such. The coriolis effect is real, but the force is tiny in comparison. The only way it'd affect the way the water goes down a plughole is if you could make all the water in the sink stand still first, which is ... left as an exercise for the reader.

At the equator yup, further north or south you go it reduces to a speed of nowt directly on the poles axis.

Yeah.

Planes on conveyor belts would suddenly start taking off all over the world

The only way it'd affect the way the water goes down a plughole is if you could make all the water in the sink stand still first, which is ... left as an exercise for the reader.

The water in our sink and bath do it, they drain really slowly so water is practically at a standstill. So not really a myth then?

Actually if one face of the earth continually faces the sun - the earth will rotate exactly 1 a year. Much like the moon rotates once a month. If the earth isn't rotating at all then the of the sun will be gradually spread around the earth.

If the earth ce to a dead stop - then it's momentum would completely pull it apart.

Well if you're prepared to wait, you'll find out. The world is slowing down gradually ......... as I discovered the other day whilst watching TV when Attenborough told me that during the period of Snowball Earth, the world spun much faster - a day was only 6 hours long.

If the earth isn't rotating at all then the sun will be gradually spread around the earth.

So one day will be one year long then ? ................it's gonna be a long wait 'til the weekend 😐

one side of the earth would get hot ... blah blah blah etc.

water would stop draining anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere blah blah blah etc.

we'd still have tides, cos the moon moves around the earth every 28 days
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hang on, do you mean 'stops spinning' so that one side faces the sun forever, or 'stops spinning' so that one day lasts 1 year...?
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cos that will affect things...

but as pointed out above, angular velocity means that objects at the equator can be thought of as moving at around 1000 mphish, (decreasing to zero at the poles).

if the earth stopped spinning, there would be a few crashes here and there.

Yep - 1 day will last a year!

If the world should stop revolving spinning slowly down to die,
I'd spend the end with you.
And when the world was through,
Then one by one the stars would all go out,
Then you and I would simply fly away

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70s popsters - Bread

If the world stopped spinning the mint sauce key fobs would arrive. Probably.

Sits wondering... How he can fit the words angular velocity into everyday building life???......

BSkyB would go bust and hopefully Murdoch too (so it isn't all doom and gloom)

would the satellites in orbit keep spinning? would the satnav still work?

The water in our sink and bath do it, they drain really slowly so water is practically at a standstill. So not really a myth then?

He didn't say that water did not swirl down a plughole, he said it's cause was not due to the coriolis effect, i.e it is not due to the earth's rotation.

Given a completely still initial conditions in a perfect bath with a perfect plughole water could flow down the plug hole symmetrically, i.e. not swirling. This solution however is unstable and any deviation away from that causes a swirling down the plug hole. This is just like a valid solution for the atmosphere is solid body rotation, but it's very unstable. The turbulence in the water is a greater source of instability than the coriolis effect.

philconsequence - Member
would the satellites in orbit keep spinning? would the satnav still work?

Yes satellite is just falling to earth with the same curvature as the body it orbits.

Hang on then...

i remember watching a six million dollar man episode where a guy from a planet with really high gravity came to earth and was dead strong so kept beating everyone up and throwing cars around and stuff (he was a librarian on his planet), and that's where Steve Austin came in.

Anyway, if some bloke who lives on the equator, has an arm wrestle with some guy who lives at the north pole, would he lose because the guy at the north pole has no rotational forces to reduce the effects of gravity through his life and hence he'll be much stronger?

Plus, the guy on the equator experiences lower gravity anyway because he's further away from the earth's centre.

Would I spill my coffee?

samurai, the gravity at the poles and equator is the same, its just the centripetal acceleration that means the person at the equator has a slightly smaller reaction force (eg: a person stands on a set of scales, the scales will read higher at the poles).

This effect is tiny though, and wouldn't really effect results. Don't go confusing some arm wrestling forum

ernie_lynch, the world spins slower in winter actually, due to more ice and snow forming at the tops of mountain. Then summer comes and all that mass turns to water, and rushes down closer to the earth's surface, and the world spins faster.

If you're sat on a spinny chair you can test this. Spin yourself holding your legs out, then bring your legs in as you're still spinning. You speed up.

Realman - were you private or state school educated?

State.

There would be a lot more weeing on shoes. The coriolis effect causes the urine to spin as it passes through the urethra. The upshot of this is similar to rifling a bullet, and greatly increases accuracy of urination. So the closer you are to the equator the larger the volume of inaccurate pish that is spouted.

Interesting - thanks.

Realman,

You've actually got that completely backwards

Gravity is slightly stronger at the poles

[i]samurai, the gravity at the poles and equator is the same, its just the centripetal acceleration that means the person at the equator has a slightly smaller reaction force (eg: a person stands on a set of scales, the scales will read higher at the poles).[/i]

Nope, it's not.

If someone lives all their life at the pole, then even if the effect is tony, everytime they pick something up, they have to work that little bit harder so by the time they reach 30, they'll be that much stronger.

Someone on the equator is further away from the apparent centre of mass of the earth (because the earth bluges on the equator due to those same rotational forces) and therefore experiences a smaller gravitational pull than they guy at the pole.

I reckon if the muscular eskimos all turned up at Singapore and started kicking off, the locals would have an awful time dealing with them and would need to import some Aussies or someone to deal with it all.

Or Lee Majors.

the gravity at the poles and equator is the same

You have to be very careful what you mean by gravity! The earth isn't a sphere, it's an oblate spheroid, so if you're on the equator you're further from the centre. If you're as old as me you will have learned in school the gravitational force is G*m1*m2/(r^^2) so the gravitational force at the equator is less. Younger people probably won't have learned this in their media studies and sports management GCSEs. 🙂

richmtb, when I wrote

the gravity at the poles and equator is the same

I wanted to write "almost the same" but didn't want to confuse more.

The earth is slightly squished, right? So yes, gravity would be slightly stronger at the poles, but look at this

Distances from points on the surface to the center range from 6,353 km to 6,384 km

31km in it. That won't have any noticeable effect, especially over the difference in reaction force caused by the earth spin.

oops, double post.

And yes, because of the formula being a reverse square law, the 31km is negligible.

Perhaps, samurai, if two identical twins did the exact same training, one at the equator, one at the pole, a difference would be noticeable, which would be pretty cool. You'd have to build some nice facilities to remove temperature and air pressure and humidity out of the equation though.

The water in our sink and bath do it, they drain really slowly so water is practically at a standstill. So not really a myth then?

It might look still, but it's stll moving about. Unless you've left the water in your sink untouched for a few days, residual angular momentum in the water will be greater than the coriolis effect. Even then, pulling the plug will exert a force and potentially skew your results, as will any imperfections in the bowl.

Unless you've left the water in your sink untouched for a few days

What about air movement above the sink, thermal movement within the water itself, and the effects of the plughole not being in the centre of the sink.......wouldn't they have any effect ?

Or is the chaos theory/butterfly effect bollox ?

would TJ start posting pictures of boobs?

richmtb, when I wrote

the gravity at the poles and equator is the same

I wanted to write "almost the same" but didn't want to confuse more.

The earth is slightly squished, right? So yes, gravity would be slightly stronger at the poles, but look at this

Distances from points on the surface to the center range from 6,353 km to 6,384 km

31km in it. That won't have any noticeable effect, especially over the difference in reaction force caused by the earth spin.

Yes but you've still got your forces backward. Centrepetal force has no effect on people standing at the equator (unless they are tied round the ankles by a piece of rope connected to the centre of the earth)

Centrifugal force due to their angular momentum decreases the apparent gravity

Due to the Earths rotation, it has formed into the shape of an oblate spheroid. It is flatter at the poles and bulges at the equator. This affects the oceans even more. Effectively the oceans bulge by up to 5 miles at the equator. If the world stopped spinning then the oceans would redistribute themselves into a northern and southern ocean separated by a huge new continent that circles the Earth at the equator.

Have a look at this.

http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0610/nospin.html

Have a look at this.

http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0610/nospin.html

That was very interesting and pretty cool

Based on futon river crossing's no spin means one day = 1 year scenario, the effect on the tides would be substantial.
The tides are predominantly caused by the sun, not the moon. The moon only causes the monthly variation in tide height and times. You would therefore have only two high tides and two low tides per year.

Just thought some people might be interested in this

[img] [/img]

In Rio de Janeiro in 2016, the same jump will get an athlete 0.25% higher (>1cm) than in London four years prior.

And richmtb,

Centrifugal force due to their angular momentum decreases the apparent gravity

Centrifugal force doesn't exist lol.

GPS wouldn't work because you wouldn't be able to have geo-stationary satellites.

Centrifugal force doesn't exist lol.

[img] [/img]

If there was an aeroplane on a west (east?) facing runway and the world suddenly stopped spinning would it take off?

What if a plane was flying at 700mph east (west?) and the same thing happened? Would it suddenly drop?

depends how high the second plane was. and depends how suddenly you mean by suddenly. It's all about yer atmospheric boundary layer innit

What if a plane was flying at 700mph east (west?) and the same thing happened? Would it suddenly drop?

If the earth stopped spinning suddenly, would all the air stop spinning as well?

[i]GPS wouldn't work because you wouldn't be able to have geo-stationary satellites".[/i]

GPS satellites aren't geo-stationary.

So if centrifugal force doesn't exist why does the Earth bulge at the equator?

So if centrifugal force doesn't exist why does the Earth bulge at the equator?

'Cos da Earf is 4.5 billion years old an' it's middle aged spread blud innit.

Oddly enough, this (and 5 other Alternate Earth scenarios) are outlined in this week's New Scientist

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20927960.400-what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning.html

Not sure if you need to be a subscriber to see the full article though.

Everything on the surface would continue moving at up to 1667 kilometres per hour, the rotation speed at the equator. People outdoors would be flung outwards to an altitude of about 11 kilometres, then fall and hit the ground at more than 1000 kilometres per hour. Buildings would be ripped from their foundations, while the oceans would engulf the land. Such a catastrophe could extinguish all life on Earth. 😯

Wacky stuff, love it.

@ RealMan - no, you'd get to see the Coriolis Effect big time then.

So if centrifugal force doesn't exist why does the Earth bulge at the equator?

😀

Everything on the surface would continue moving at up to 1667 kilometres per hour, the rotation speed at the equator. People outdoors would be flung outwards to an altitude of about 11 kilometres, then fall and hit the ground at more than 1000 kilometres per hour. Buildings would be ripped from their foundations, while the oceans would engulf the land. Such a catastrophe could extinguish all life on Earth.

Oh no...that'll be the premise of another Emmerich disaster movie then.

Oh joy, another 2012 - what a hoot!

The article does make the distinction between 'stops suddenly' and 'stops gradually' - the latter being where hoodoo's (very cool) ESRI link comes in.