Eli5: If the earth is spinning at 1000mph how come when we jump up in a straight line we don’t end up in a different place on the ground?
In: Earth Science
You do! Except the Earth is so big that it isn’t noticeable unless you jumped really, really high.
It’s not a perfect analogy but imagine standing on a carousel or merry-go-round and jumping up. If it is moving fast you might stagger a bit as you land and end up in a different place to where you jumped.
But now imagine one that is only rotating around once per day. That motion is going to be so slow (even if it was a really big carousel) that in the brief time you are in the air you won’t have had much chance to move away from where you started.
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