"Stop the earth, I'm getting off. "This frustrated statement has been around since the 50s of the last century and is used in both classical and modern times.
But if the Earth does stop spinning, the consequences will be more like a post-apocalyptic horror movie than a romantic ** drama.
Imagine you're walking on some sunny beach at the equator. The Earth beneath your feet rotates eastward at a speed of 1,040 miles (1,674 km/h).
But since you, the sand, and everything around you move at the same speed, your stroll feels slow and leisurely.
Then, the earth stops under your feet and you get out of the car. In fact, you're thrown out.
Because of Newton's law of inertia, you initially fly east at a speed of about 1040 miles per hour. Whether you end up landing on sea or land, the force of the impact can kill you.
Water will also feel this sudden acceleration," said Joseph Levy, associate professor of earth and environmental geosciences at Colgate University. As a result, you're likely to see the ocean fluctuate before impact.
Trees and buildings are also unsafe, even though they are rooted in the ground. "Earth materials are strong when compressed, but very fragile when stretched," Levy said.
In other words, the nearby brick building was able to carry hundreds of people because its floors and support beams became compact under their weight.
But the inertia created from an abrupt halt in rotation from the earth will be stronger than the mortar that glues the bricks together, so the whole structure could tear apart, Levy said.
If that makes you feel a little better, your supposed cousin in Antarctica might survive and probably just suffer a few scrapes. "Near the poles, the axis of rotation is much smaller, so the speed of rotation is much smaller," Levy said. ”
But you have to be very close - at latitude 89Within 9 degrees, Levy said, or about seven miles from the pole. At this distance, you may just be staggering at walking speed.
But your friends in Denmark or Australia may not be able to. Most of the places inhabited by humans are far enough away from the poles that the inhabitants will still fly out at hundreds of miles per hour.
What would happen if the Earth gradually stopped rotating?
In a natural system, nothing really can be stopped completely and immediately," Levy said.
So what if the Earth slows down in days or weeks?
A gradual deceleration can prevent you from flying into the sky, but once you stop, you'll still be in trouble.
Over the course of a year, half of the planet will be in the dark and half of the planet will be in full light as the Earth orbits the sun, but this half of the planet will be constantly changing over the course of a year," Levy said.
The day "could last up to six months, and the uninterrupted sunlight will scorch nearby crops and evaporate most of the water in your hemisphere," Levy added.
The next six-month-long night may not be so good** either. The lack of light and warmth may kill many of the remaining plants and freeze the water into ice.
Higher latitudes may be safer because the sunlight isn't too intense near the poles, Levy said. But you may have to adapt to a nomadic lifestyle, constantly chasing the sunshine on Earth.
You may also have to deal with some unexpected weather.
On a rotating Earth, most of the solar radiation hits the Earth's equator. "Broadly speaking, warm air rises at the equator and cools down at the poles," Levy said. "Ocean currents follow a similar upward and downward cycle.
But when only half of the planet gets intense sunlight in a matter of months, Earth gets a second side temperature gradient, making weather forecasting twice as complicated.
The wind will sweep across the finish line – the shadow line – bringing cold air back from the night, cooling it up during the day," Levy added.
Will the world really stop spinning?
Don't panic, but the Earth's rotation is slowing down, thanks to the process of tidal braking.
According to NASA, the gravitational pull of our moon creates a tiny drag on our planet's rotation, so with each century, the Earth's rotation slows down by an additional 23 ms.
But it is unlikely that the Moon will completely stop the rotation of the Earth. "The Earth is much larger than the Moon, so the resulting angular momentum is greater," Levy said.
One way to significantly slow the Earth's rotation would be if humans saw it as a huge source of energy**. For example, we could theoretically use the Earth as a flywheel system, storing the kinetic energy of its rotation to meet our energy needs.
"If you harness the momentum of the Earth's rotation to meet all human energy needs, it will still take about 1 million years for the Earth to slow down to a halt," Levy said. ”
Until then, it is almost impossible for any celestial body to be able to stop the Earth from rotating. "The Earth's angular momentum is too great to slow down unless there's a complete catastrophe," Levy said.
As a result, the world doesn't stop for a short time for you to get off – which can be a good thing.
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