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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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.

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