eli5: As earth rotates, why are we not able to travel to different places just by hovering above the ground? lol
In: Physics
Newton’s first law of motion on a very large scale.
An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by another force.
Think of it like a car moving, and when you’re inside of it and you pick up an object and drop it to your lap; it will fall to your lap as it would if you were sitting let’s say, in your living room. This happens because if the car is driving at 50mph, your object that you dropped has also been accelerated to that speed, and now the car, yourself and the object are traveling at 50mph. If you add an external force, like if you were to do that same experiment by opening the window and dropping it outside the car, now you have the air friction that will slow the object down and make it stay behind as you drop it. Inside the car, the air friction is blocked by the windows and glass.
Us humans and everything on earth are the objects, and the earth is our car. Our shield protecting us from exterior forces is our atmosphere.
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