If earth stopped spinning, what would happen then?

[flobadob]

Say something happened which caused earth to come to a standstill and stop rotating, what would happen next? Would it still keep orbiting the sun, would it just lie suspended in one place, would it start falling towards the edges of the solar system and onwards or any or none of the above?

[New Judge]

None of the above.

The earth's rotation about its axis has no effect on its orbit around the Sun or its position in the Solar System.

More noticeable would be that there would be a year between each sunrise (assuming the planet is not subject to "captured rotation" or "tidal locking") and there would be fourteen days between each high tide.

[puzzlesRus]

One viewpoint can be found here :-

http://www.esri.com/n...user/0610/nospin.html

[Huderon]

One of the first things that would happen is that the air would happily keep travelling at around 1000 mph (at the equator) or at something over 600 mph in my neck of the woods. One consequence of that would be that things like buildings and trees would take a hammering, and anyone out and about wouldn't have too much fun either. Remember the damage caused by the storm in 1987 ? Well the wind speed topped out at 120 mph then.

Then there are all those squishy things living on the surface (insects, birds, animals, people). They are also moving at, or close to, the speed that the earth is rotating at, and they'd keep on doing so. Somehow I don't think I'd come off too well bumping into something solid at over 600 mph.

[Calibax]

I'm not sure flobadob meant it would come to an INSTANT standstill, Huderon. If so, inertia would certainly put paid to all of us as you suggest.
The earth might well become unstable in its orbit if it stopped spinning, in the same way a bicycle becomes unstable when its wheels stop turning.

[scotman]

In the back of my ethanol-riddled memory is the belief that there is a film in which some person or alien has infinite power. In a moment of madness, just to prove this, they cause the earth to stop spinning. Everything flies off and everything dies.

[jno]

Superman tried that, scotman, I think in the 1978 film. But I don't know if it met the full criteria for a scientific experiment.

[tamborine]

Wish it would, am really dizzzzy

[gen2]

Regardless of all the superficial effects mentioned above, by far the greatest effect would be the HUGE release of energy. The Earth is like a giant flywheel storing energy in its rotation. If it stopped, where is all that energy going to go? I don't think Huderon would survive long enough to find out what it felt like hitting a solid object at over 600 mph.

[mibn2cweus]

Venus comes close. It takes longer for Venus to turn once on its axis (~243 Earth days) then it does to complete an orbit around the Sun.

[beso]

It would be interesting to know the rotational angular momentum and kinetic energy of the Earth. I wonder how it compares with the orbital values.

[nightmare]

Ignoring issues such as what happens to the rotational energy and assuming everything on the Earth's surface is also brought to a halt at the same time, one effect would be that things would apear to be slightly heavier (~ 1-2 % increase), because of the lack of "centrifugal force".

I do not want to open that particular can of worms, by the way, hence the inverted commas.

[scotman]

beso

I haven't checked these figures

http://answers.yahoo....20091125210640AA0tKmi

[jomifl]

Scotman ..I believe the film was called 'the day the earth stood still'. It seemed a bit silly to me at the tender age I was at the time because most of the things that posters to this thread have predicted did not happen, it was a bit tame with very few cataclismic disasters.

[beso]

nightmare //things would apear to be slightly heavier (~ 1-2 % increase), because of the lack of "centrifugal force"//

It is actually only about one third of one percent difference.

I don't know why people get so uptight about the term "centrifugal force". It is every bit as real as centripetal force. The perception that centifugal force does not exist is a popular myth perpetrated by generations of misinformed science teachers.

The centripetal force component of gravitation is balanced by a reactive centrifugal force applied on the Earth.

[erin-x]

I always thought that if the Earth was to suddenly stop spinning we would all go flying as if you had done an emergency stop in a car.

[jomifl]

^^^ 'cataclysmic'

[AlBags]

We'd all fall over.

[roger]

HG Wells short story "The man who could work miracles"touches on it