Why Is The Earth Spinning, But We Do Not Notice It? - Alternative View

Why Is The Earth Spinning, But We Do Not Notice It? - Alternative View
Why Is The Earth Spinning, But We Do Not Notice It? - Alternative View

Video: Why Is The Earth Spinning, But We Do Not Notice It? - Alternative View

Video: Why Is The Earth Spinning, But We Do Not Notice It? - Alternative View
Video: Why Can't We Feel The Earth Spinning (Explained) 2024, May
Anonim

Let me congratulate you: you are currently spinning at 1500 km / h without even trying too hard. The Earth rotates at about this speed, making a full revolution. Why don't we feel it? On a roller coaster, the stomach threatens to empty its contents, and this is much slower than 1500 km / h. You do not feel that you are spinning on Earth for the same reason that you do not feel the movement on the train. Because the Earth and the train are "frames of reference" for physicists. Reference systems are like points of view, perspective. The person standing on the train has one perspective - one frame of reference - and the person at the station has another.

If you are standing on a station platform, you will definitely see a stationary platform and a departing train. But from the inside of the train, you will feel immobile as the world moves away from you. From any point of view, you will be immobile. From the train you can watch the world move, on the platform you can watch the train move.

The same is true for Earth and space, but on a large scale. From within the Earth's frame of reference, you cannot say that you are spinning. But if you observe the Earth in the space frame of reference, you can see that it does not stand still.

And like passengers sitting on a train, we don't even know how fast we are moving - even the breeze does not stir our hair. The air inside the train (and the atmosphere surrounding our planet) moves at the same speed as we do.

There is one important difference between a train and the Earth. When the train slows down or speeds up, we can feel the force that arises on our body. Because there is a simple law of physics: force is equal to mass times acceleration. Your body is mass, and when the acceleration is zero - when the train is moving at a constant speed - there is no force acting on the body. You don't feel it. But when the train accelerates or slows down, there is power. If you get up at the wrong time, you will simply be knocked off your feet.

Since most trains change speed more often than they move at a constant speed, we can almost always tell if we are moving or standing still. The earth does not slow down or speed up. But if it accelerated or slowed down, we would definitely feel it, just like on a train. Fortunately, this does not happen. And we do not feel the movement of the Earth. But the Sun and Moon rise in the east and set in the west because of the direction of our rotation. So people guessed that the Earth does not stand still.

Ilya Khel