• Question: What would happen to humans if the world stopped rotating?

    Asked by Pragnesh to Hephzi, Imogen, Jen, Jennifer, Tom on 16 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by Sirius.
    • Photo: Thomas Barrett

      Thomas Barrett answered on 16 Mar 2015:


      If the Earth stopped spinning suddenly, the atmosphere would still be in motion with the Earth’s original 1100 mile per hour rotation speed at the equator. All of the land masses would be scoured clean of anything not attached to bedrock.

      Also a day would last a year! As it would take one orbit of the sun to have a night day cycle.

      http://www.universetoday.com/66570/what-would-happen-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/

    • Photo: Jennifer Rudd

      Jennifer Rudd answered on 16 Mar 2015:


      I think half of us would get very cold very quickly because we’d have no sunshine and half of us would get our sleep cycles messed up very quickly because they’d have no nighttime!

    • Photo: Imogen Napper

      Imogen Napper answered on 17 Mar 2015:


      For starters, Earth would now take a whole year to do what it pulls off in a day: cycle from night to day and back. Cities would spend half the year in darkness and half the year in full sunlight, just like the North and South Poles do today.

      And, like the poles, every region would still experience different seasons, but the temperature swings from season to season would be much greater for areas along the equator. An equatorial region would spend infernally hot months very close to the sun, while that area’s global counterpart would spend dark very far away from it. That’s trouble for the plants and animals that have adapted to the climate of a place and, consequently, for the people living there as well.

      Because the Earth rotates, centrifugal force causes the planet to bulge along the equator. No rotation, no bulge. Without that bulge, all of the extra water held in place along the equator would go rushing back toward the poles.

      As if that weren’t enough, Earth’s magnetic field might go away, too. While we’re not entirely sure how that magnetic field is generated, one leading theory states that it’s the result of Earth’s inner core rotating slightly faster than outer core (yep, two different rotations on one planet). If both of them stop, the mechanism behind Earth’s magnetic field may as well, leaving us exposed to potential harmful solar winds!!

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