Question on Earth’s Rotational Speed and theory?
I read that the Earth’s rotational speed at the equator is 1038 mph. At the poles it is supposedly almost nothing. In that same article, it explained that if Earth suddenly stopped, that the atmosphere would still be moving at 1000 mph. I pose a few questions below.
1. If this means the atmosphere is always moving at 1000 mph, wouldn’t that mean we would always have a 38 mph wind speed?
2. If we fly a helicopter straight up, parallel to the ground, and sky dive off of it, shouldn’t the ground below us be moving at 38 mph?
3. So theoretically and hypothetically, If we were to throw a fishing line with a weight on it from the Moon safely through Earth’s atmosphere, stopping 20 ft above the ground, at the equator, the weight would move about the earth at 1038 mph?
Please post your thoughts.
1. The atmosphere doesn’t move at 1000mph over every point on earth. I’m sure this is an average speed. The rotational speed of the atmosphere should be nearly equal to the rotational speed of the earth below that point in the atmosphere.
2. Taking off in a helicoptor, the helicoptor will have the same initial velocity as the point on earth that it took off from. So if a helicoptor takes off from a point on earth that has a rotational speed of 1000mph, the helicoptor will have that same speed. It’s not as if the atmosphere moves slower than the earth and holds the helicoptor at a slower speed as well.
3. You’re assuming that the moon is in a fixed position with respect to the earth. Remember that the moon is always orbiting the earth, just like the earth always orbits the sun. So i would say that the weight’s motion relative to the earth would be a function of the moon’s orbital speed around the earth.
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