Hey I’ve just thought! After watching Superman turn back the Earth and bring Lois Lane back to life, If we could theoretically counter spin the Earth on its axis would life just continue as it is or would we feel a notable change in our days, months, Years???.
Some weird Sh*t i know but it just struck me, what would be the velocity you would have to be travelling before you could halt the Earth on its Axis?????? and then get it going again…..No dumb replies like Supaspeed !
Thanx
By: Arabella-Cox - 28th August 2003 at 02:36
To stop and reverse time on earth superman would have to accelerate the whole earth to faster than the speed of light and then decelerate it back to normal speed.
The energy required to stop the earth from spinning is very similar to the amount of energy required to make the earth leave the suns orbit (ie either towards or away from the sun).
You’d have to be very careful how you applied that force as millions of times less force would be enough to totally destroy the top 20km of its entire surface.
If the earth suddenly stopped spinning then those things on the surface would be thrown about a bit, but it is gravity that holds us on the surface of the Earth and stops our atmosphere from floating away. Centrifugal force actually means the earths spin is trying to throw you out into space… much like the outward force that will hold water in a bucket if you spin it around fast enough.
The best way to stop the earth from spinning is to put an object of equal weight spinning in the opposite direction right next to it.
The reason the Earth is currently slowing down very slowly is the presence of the moon. Replace the moon with a much larger body and the Earth would slow down much quicker.
If the Earth rotated on the opposite direction then the only obvious difference was the direction the sun would rise and set from. It is the tilt of the earths axis that determines seasons, not the direction of rotation.
“A note about the 1000 mph speed: That is only at the equator so if you could pile everyone one up at the poles we wouldn’t be affected by the spin deceleration or acceleration.”
So those at the poles would not be thrown anywhere if the world suddenly stopped. Those on the poles would be accelerated to 1,000mph at the instant the world stopped… but 1,000mph is nowhere near orbital speed so although it would be quite a jolt it would not result in anything being thrown into space… note the atmosphere would take as long to stop as things not fixed to the ground, so if you were in an aircraft at very low altitude you might be slammed into a mountain, but at high alt you would be decellerating at the same speed as the air around you…
By: Whiskey Delta - 27th August 2003 at 20:15
Re: Superman: The Movie Counter Spinning the Earth……
Originally posted by ad0nis
what would be the velocity you would have to be travelling before you could halt the Earth on its Axis?????? and then get it going again…
It wouldn’t be a matter of your speed just your ability to stop a multi-million ton (or is it billion?) planet spinning at 1000 mph. If you could do that then everyone/thing on it’s surface would be thrown into space as the planet stopped rotating. Imagine riding on a train traveling at 1000 mph and having it stop. You would need one heck of a harness to keep you from smashing your face. I guess you could just decelerate it slowly enough that it wouldn’t jar the inhabitants here but Superman did it in a matter of seconds.
A note about the 1000 mph speed: That is only at the equator so if you could pile everyone one up at the poles we wouldn’t be affected by the spin deceleration or acceleration. 🙂
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August 27, 2003 at 8:04 pm