The Earth is spinning at around 1,000 miles per hour (1,600 kilometers per hour). So why do you, on Earth, not feel like you are hurtling along at these incredible velocities?
When you get on a roundabout and it spins, you feel like you are being pushed outwards. This is the (
You might extrapolate from that that you must experience the same feeling of being pushed outward as the Earth spins, and you’d be correct. In fact, the planet
Forces that change the shape of the Earth also affect you, standing on said Earth. You are affected by it, but it is overwhelmed by gravity.
“The acceleration of gravity is about 9.8 m/s^2 on the Earth’s surface, and the reduction of that due to the rotation of the Earth at the equator, where things are moving the fastest, is about 0.03 m/s^2,” professor of physics and optical science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Greg Gbur, explained to
Relative motion is the only motion you have to worry about (thank Einstein), which leads us to the air. Think about how, in a car, the air feels stationary – but if you were to stick your head out the window like a dog, you would feel the air slamming against your face and making your ears/hair/loose skin flap. As the Earth spins it
The Earth’s motion is relatively smooth, though it is slowed and sped up by various factors, including
If the Earth were to
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