What if the earth ceased (at least temporarily) to rotate?

Discussion in 'Science and Nature' started by kagaos, Jan 10, 2010.

  1. Wouldn't we all weigh more?

    I mean, the earth rotates, we can all agree on that. Therefore, since the earth rotates it must have centrifugal force. The centrifugal force counteracts some of the gravitational force and allows us to weigh the weight we do. If you remove the "upward" or outward, if you will, force that is counteracting gravity, you effectively increase weight.

    The real question is, I guess, does the earths rotation exert an "anti-gravity" effect on us, or is there something I'm missing?
     
  2. In terms of gravity, at the equator there's a very slight anti-gravity effect, but only enough to make a person weigh a few grams less. A big building is only a few pounds lighter at the equator than the north pole.

    So gravity would be the least of your worries if the earth stopped rotating.
     
  3. the earths incredible mass is what causes gravity. even you and another person have a certain gravity towards each other, but because the mass of a person is so small, that gravity is negligable and cant be felt. i think that the earth spinning does have an "antigravity effect" on us. (i could be completely wrong but from my research thats what i believe.) if the earth were to speed up, we would feel as if we weighed less. so yes, i think that if the earth stopped we wwould feel that we weighed more.
     
  4. Ok well I did all the calculations and it would appear that the centrifugal acceleration caused by the earths roatation is equivelant to 0.00338431 g's which is roughly 0.338431% of the earths total gravity. So, you were right, the difference between weights when the earth is rotating or not is negligible. Darn...was kinda hoping it would have been a more profound difference.
    I'm not smart enough to do the calculations for how much we would weigh if the earth stopped rotating, but I would assume it would be in the range of grams like you said.
     

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