I was holding a rubber band ball in my hand earlier and tossing it up in the air at about eye level. I noticed that I could see the shape of individual rubber bands on the axis of rotation on the outside of the ball but the edges of the ball were blurry. This got me thinking.. is a ball spinning slower near the axis than it is at the outer edge? Is the earth spinning faster at the equator than it is at the poles? If speed is d/t then the math makes sense to a layman like me that the ball would be rotating slower at the center and faster on the edges. Please help.
edit: holy shit. balls are fascinating.
In: 439
Radially (d in radians), yes. The earth rotates at π/12 Radian/h anywhere along any axis.
Linearly (d in meters), no. Any point on earth rotates at r*π/12 km/h where r is the straight-line distance from said point to the North/South Pole Axis.
… Except anywhere along the North/South Pole Axis itself. Those do not move through space at all, so their speed is 0 radian/h (and 0 km/h because r=0).
… If you don’t take into account the fact that the Earth is orbiting the sun, and the sun is orbiting Sagitarius A*, and the universe is expanding, of course.
Latest Answers