Quizzes & Puzzles1 min ago
Earth stops spinning...?
Answers
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.The circumference of the earth is about 24900 miles at the equator. That means that people living there travel 24900 miles in 24 hours. That equates to a speed of around 1037 miles per hour. If the earth were to come to an abrupt halt, then you (and any other objects on the earth's surface, including the oceans) would shoot off towards the horizon (at a tangent) at over 1000 mph. I don't think many would survive. People living further from the equator would travel at progressively slower speeds until at the poles, a person would remain stationary.
There would be another major effect of the earth stopping, and that concerns the conservation of energy. A rotating mass the size of the earth stores a huge amount of energy. That would be converted into heat and the effect of that on the earth's crust doesn't bear thinking about.