Why can't we feel ourselves spinning as the Earth spins? Apparently we are spinning along at over 1000 miles per hour if we live at the equator! That's way fast! A jumbo jet travels a little over 500 miles per hour. Shouldn't we feel something? Why not? It’s because you and everything else – including Earth’s oceans and atmosphere – are spinning along with the Earth at the same constant speed. Now if the Earth stopped we would feel it! Think about riding in a car or flying in a plane. As long as the ride is going smoothly, you can almost convince yourself you’re not moving. A jumbo jet flies at about 500 miles per hour, or about half as fast as the Earth spins at its equator. But, while you’re riding on that jet, if you close your eyes, you don’t feel like you’re moving at all. And when the flight attendant comes by and pours soda into your cup, the soda doesn’t fly to the back of the plane. That’s because the soda, the cup and you are all moving at the same rate as the plane. The constant spin of the Earth had our ancestors pretty confused about the true nature of the heavens. They noticed that the stars, and the sun and the moon, all appeared to move above the Earth. Because they couldn’t feel Earth move, they logically thought this observation meant that Earth was stationary and “the stars” moved above us. What happens if the Earth stops? Everything around us would come to a stop too...and we would go flying....Can you imagine the waves of water in the ocean if the Earth came to a sudden stop? So, the point of all this is...we can't tell we are spinning because we are spinning with the Earth, at a constant speed, steadily, like passengers on a huge "spaceship".
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Mrs. TaylorI love science! Everything about the world is interesting and never boring. I love to study plants, animals, insects, and people. My favorite subjects are my students who are the most unique organisms on the planet! Categories |