• Question: If the earth stopped turning on it's axis would our gravity get lower and lower until we float?

    Asked by 279cmtm29 to Aileen, Caroline, Christopher, Rehemat, Stephanie, Stephen on 13 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Christopher Nankervis

      Christopher Nankervis answered on 13 Mar 2018:

      Gravity is not caused by the rotating Earth, but in the higher latitudes our storms move and develop because of the Earth’s rotation. The weather would not be as changeable without the Earth turning.

    • Photo: Stephanie Mann

      Stephanie Mann answered on 13 Mar 2018:

      If the earth stopped turning on its axis it’s not the gravity that would change, it would be the force we feel by the rotation. We are currently getting pulled into earth by gravity and a tiny bit off the earth because the earth is spinning. If the earth suddenly stopped spinning we would fly off at about 1000 miles per hour near the surface, but near the poles we would hardly fly off at all.
      If on the other hand the earth slowly slowly stopped rotating, until eventually it stopped, we would actually all feel a little bit heavier, because we aren’t feeling the pulling off feeling from the centrifugal force!

    • Photo: Stephen Twomlow

      Stephen Twomlow answered on 13 Mar 2018:

      Chris andStephanie done a good job on this one – but if the earth stopped turning part of the earth would have daytime the other half night time – fine for thoughs of us who like our beds

    • Photo: Aileen Baird

      Aileen Baird answered on 13 Mar 2018:

      I’m glad Chris and Stephanie have answered this one because I didn’t know- I’m learning things here too!

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