Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Ward
I just need ot be a little careful here...my beef is not with any "theological" aspects of that person's world view.
Simply the physics of what would happen if mother earth suddenly stopped spinning. (BTW.... no, we would not "float off"....gravity will continue to work just fine)...as I said, interesting given the large numbers involved...
The kinetic rotational energy of the earth...about 2.14 x 10^26 Kilowatts per second ? (my math could be dodgy, but we are close) has to go somewhere.... eg melt rocks etc.
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The bit I always struggle with, Peter, in these sorts of questions is the mechanism that causes the effect. To stop the earth spinning there must be something to cause it, and that is probably something far more disasterous than the actual effects of simply not spinning. I think Les D is thinking a similar direction.
However, lets not spoil a good healthy speculative mental exercise with too much logic
.
If the oceans and atmosphere didn't stop with the rest of the earth, well,,, synchronised tsunami's, Batman, was a mess!
If they did, well I reckon the differential heating between the two sides of the earth would have some wild weather. Extremely hot one side, and cold the other and big winds in between. Of course the coriolis component would be missing so cyclones and anti cyclones wouldn't form (I think
). But then imagine the moon is still orbiting the earth...
... tides would still be working.
However, if the moon stopped orbiting as well... oops...
Al.