Eli5 Why is the earth spinning so complicated?

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Like the earth and ground is rotating yet nothings changing and the fact that we’re moving along with it doesn’t make any sense either.

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8 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

>the fact that we’re moving along with it doesn’t make any sense either

Why not? If you place a crate on your car and drive it the crate will come along. You just can’t accelerate or change direction too suddenly, but earth doesn’t accelerate, it’s moving pretty steadily. Also if you’re going very fast the standing air might blow it off, but there is no air in space.

>Like the earth and ground is rotating yet nothings changing

Because they all rotate the same direction. We can only perceive movement in relation to other things. A car is moving compared to the road, we see both so we see movement. But earth is moving and spinning in space. We can see objects in space, but they are so far away that they appear to move extremely slowly (the sun moon and stars). In absense of reference points movement is hard to perceive. You can be in a plane and not notice how fast you’re going because nothing is near the plane

Anonymous 0 Comments

What do you mean “nothing changes”? What do you think Days and Nights are? What do you think Seasons are?

Anonymous 0 Comments

>the fact that we’re moving along with it doesn’t make any sense either

Why not? If you place a crate on your car and drive it the crate will come along. You just can’t accelerate or change direction too suddenly, but earth doesn’t accelerate, it’s moving pretty steadily. Also if you’re going very fast the standing air might blow it off, but there is no air in space.

>Like the earth and ground is rotating yet nothings changing

Because they all rotate the same direction. We can only perceive movement in relation to other things. A car is moving compared to the road, we see both so we see movement. But earth is moving and spinning in space. We can see objects in space, but they are so far away that they appear to move extremely slowly (the sun moon and stars). In absense of reference points movement is hard to perceive. You can be in a plane and not notice how fast you’re going because nothing is near the plane

Anonymous 0 Comments

What do you mean “nothing changes”? What do you think Days and Nights are? What do you think Seasons are?

Anonymous 0 Comments

You feel changes in acceleration, not constant speed.

Like being in an airplane, you feel when it takes off and lands, but during cruise you don’t feel any motion.

Anonymous 0 Comments

You feel changes in acceleration, not constant speed.

Like being in an airplane, you feel when it takes off and lands, but during cruise you don’t feel any motion.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Well you are wrong about the “nothing changes” part. Day and night are the direct result of the earth spinning. So are tides.

But I assume you are confused as to why we dont feel anything. Some people here said that its because the spinning is constant and you only feel accelerated motion, but that is not the correct explanation. Circling/orbiting/moving in a circle is in fact accelerated motion.

But the acceleration you would feel because of the spinning of the earth is very minimal compared to the gravitational pull of the earth. In fact, the centripetal acceleration, the acceleration caused by the spinning, is several hundreds times smaller than the gravitaional acceleration. And thats on the equator, where the force due to spinning is the highest.

So basicly, earths spinning does cause some forces, but they are just too small for humans to pick up.

But that doesnt mean that they arent noticable in other ways! Since the earth is a sphere, the forces caused by its spinning vary over its surface. This causes something called “coriolis effect”, which does [affect the atmosphere](https://earthhow.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Coriolis-Effect-Feature-678×378.png). In fact, its the reason why there are some very predictible patterns in the winds that blow all over the planet, and its one of the main reasons why climate patterns on earth are the way they are.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Well you are wrong about the “nothing changes” part. Day and night are the direct result of the earth spinning. So are tides.

But I assume you are confused as to why we dont feel anything. Some people here said that its because the spinning is constant and you only feel accelerated motion, but that is not the correct explanation. Circling/orbiting/moving in a circle is in fact accelerated motion.

But the acceleration you would feel because of the spinning of the earth is very minimal compared to the gravitational pull of the earth. In fact, the centripetal acceleration, the acceleration caused by the spinning, is several hundreds times smaller than the gravitaional acceleration. And thats on the equator, where the force due to spinning is the highest.

So basicly, earths spinning does cause some forces, but they are just too small for humans to pick up.

But that doesnt mean that they arent noticable in other ways! Since the earth is a sphere, the forces caused by its spinning vary over its surface. This causes something called “coriolis effect”, which does [affect the atmosphere](https://earthhow.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Coriolis-Effect-Feature-678×378.png). In fact, its the reason why there are some very predictible patterns in the winds that blow all over the planet, and its one of the main reasons why climate patterns on earth are the way they are.