What would happen if Earth stopped spinning?

[Admin]

We can't feel Earth spinning and you probably take it for granted, but what would happen if it stopped spinning? We take a look at the disastrous impacts it would have.

What would happen if Earth stopped spinning? : Read more

 

[geowin]

We can't feel Earth spinning and you probably take it for granted, but what would happen if it stopped spinning? We take a look at the disastrous impacts it would have.

What would happen if Earth stopped spinning? : Read more

Did Professor Layden of BGSU really suggest in this article that an object leaving earth’s surface at a maximum speed of around 1,000mph (earth’s rotational speed at the equator) will go into ‘low earth orbit’? Gosh, with the apparent lower Earth escape velocity in Ohio, NASA could save a fortune by moving their launch facilities there. Added bonus: they could also use standard AR-15 bullets to shoot down any overhead spy satellites.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

This article is rather silly, trying to conceptualize the Earth's spin to stop in some manner that does not stop what is on the surface, so that things at the equator suddenly have 1,000 mph relative velocity to the east. Why would the surface rock layer stop? Why would the oceans not stop? The whole scenario is just physically ridiculous, so describing the results based on physics is a non-sequitur.

But, the article then gets somewhat more rational in discussing the rotation rates of other solar system bodies, and how collisions might have caused what we now observe.

Which reminded me of the old "Worlds in Collision" theory of Immanuel Velikovsky, which had Venus going past Earth to cause events in our history.

But, what about Venus taking the place of "Theia", and, instead of melding with Earth in a collision, Venus had its rotation nearly stopped while Earth's rotation was increased and the debris left in Earth's orbit by the collision becomes our Moon?

And, extending on that, what would the effect of climate be for an almost-not-rotating planet (Venus) somewhat closer to the Sun that Earth? Could the lack or rotation be the cause of the vastly different climate evolution, compared to Earth?

Those thoughts seem to be a lot more worthy of some speculative thinking than the idea about what would happen if the Earth's rotation would suddenly stop.

 

[Pogo]

And imagine the effects on the internals of the planet itself, suddenly stopping some 6x10^24 kg.
Then the most humongous tsunami as the sea sloshes around the Earth a few times.
And the moon will stop receding as the Earth’s rotation will no longer drag the tMoon in its orbit, but, the Moon continuing to orbit will drag the Earth into beginning to rotate again slowly, then the moon’s orbit will begin to approach the Earth, albeit very slowly.
That may be not so good.

 

[Helio]

This article is rather silly, trying to conceptualize the Earth's spin to stop in some manner that does not stop what is on the surface, so that things at the equator suddenly have 1,000 mph relative velocity to the east. Why would the surface rock layer stop? Why would the oceans not stop? The whole scenario is just physically ridiculous, so describing the results based on physics is a non-sequitur.

Agreed. Either it stops or it doesn't. But if the surface, for some reason, doesn't suddenly stop, as geowin notes, the 1000mph velocity won't put stuff in Earth's orbit around the Sun. It's not a momemtum issue but an escape velocity one.

But, the article then gets somewhat more rational in discussing the rotation rates of other solar system bodies, and how collisions might have caused what we now observe.

Yes, that was interesting.

But, what about Venus taking the place of "Theia", and, instead of melding with Earth in a collision, Venus had its rotation nearly stopped while Earth's rotation was increased and the debris left in Earth's orbit by the collision becomes our Moon?

Yes, but there's all the other objective arguments for an impact, including the great similarity of composition, the size of the Moon, the size of our core, etc. The Theia model, like so many other nascent models, originally was very unaccepted.

And, extending on that, what would the effect of climate be for an almost-not-rotating planet (Venus) somewhat closer to the Sun that Earth? Could the lack or rotation be the cause of the vastly different climate evolution, compared to Earth?

That's logical. Apparently, a lot has to do with the winds of their atmospheres, which are needed for heat transfer. Then there are some views about habitability in the transition zones of night and day.

I have a question that has bugged me for quite a while. We learned from Planck (probe) that the Earth generates a spacetime drag so that there is some rotation of spacetime around a rotating body. I think it's called frame-dragging.

But, being a Newton fan perhaps, if the Earth an cause frame-dragging, would not frame-dragging of spacetime in turn affect the rotation rate of a body, assuming one could do this to spacetime around it? If so, would there be any catastrophic effects on the surface in the short term?

 

[Robertnolan]

This article says the earth will likely never stop spinning… But wouldn’t that make it perpetual motion? And perpetual motion cannot exist due to the first and second laws of thermodynamics. So, that must mean that one day, even if it’s billions of years in the future, it will stop spinning.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

"Perpetual motion" itself is not inconsistent with known physical laws. Newton's first law is:

" A body remains at rest, or in motion at a constant speed in a straight line, except insofar as it is acted upon by a force."

So, without some force like friction, motion continues "forever".

But, there always seems to be some sort of force involved, so if "forever" means infinite time, then even infinitesimal forces need to be considered in predictions.

But, it is the "perpetual motion machine" that is inconsistent with physical laws of motion. The concept of a "machine" doing useful work involves using energy, which is in effect applying forces to whatever motion is being conceived as "perpetual". So according to Newton's First Law of Motion, using that motion will decrease it, and thus it would not be "perpetual".

Things like the tides going in and out may seem like they are perpetual, because, in our lifetimes, they do not seem to change. But, in fact, they are slowing the rotational rate of the Earth and boosting the orbital radius of the Moon, just by very small fractions of their totals. But, that is why the Earth's rotation rate is slowing and the Moon is receding, because the Earth is effectively "doing work" to raise the Moon.

Eventually the Earth would slow enough to be tidally locked to the Moon, just like the Moon is already tidally locked to the Earth. So, they would rotate together until yet another force interfered. The Sun is expected to expand and envelope the Earth in about 5 billion years, so somebody should be asking if that is the end of Earth, not just its rotation.

 

[Classical Motion]

The only reality there is, is charged particles and the fields around and emitted by them. And the charge, and the fields around them and fields emitted by them are in perpetual motion. All physical entities are in perpetual motion. Only space lacks motion.

Energy and inertia have been decreasing since the beginning. Which means gravity has been decreasing since the beginning.

Every emission is a loss of mass and energy. Charge emits to remain lossless. To keep perpetual motion. It hard to concept with a modern education.

Most of our laws are false. Leading many to false concepts. Like light. And matter. And gravity. And the relation of mass and energy. And temperature. And redshift.

All based on false concepts. Reality is based on structure, not mass and energy. All motion has structure.

Modern theory is not only just wrong, it couldn't be more wrong. A zenith of perversion.

Light and matter are digital. Very discreet. Analog and averages only comes from flux. A superposition of discreet.

Light, mass and matter, and probably gravity are fluxes of discreetness.