After a little while it would get very hot on the sunny side, and very cold on the dark side. This may result in some unusual weather.
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What would happen if the Earth stopped rotating suddenly?
- Thread starter Lookingglassman
- Start date
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Ouch! Thanks for doing the calculation!
I think it's fair to say that of the six and a half (?) billion people on this planet, somebody would survive. We humans are an intelligent bunch.
(1) We have a permanent base at the south pole. From what I've read here, those people wouldn't experience too much displacement. Survivors likely.
(2) Just a question I thought up. What would happen to people in aircraft? I have a hard time believing the effects would be the same.
(1) We have a permanent base at the south pole. From what I've read here, those people wouldn't experience too much displacement. Survivors likely.
(2) Just a question I thought up. What would happen to people in aircraft? I have a hard time believing the effects would be the same.
Any airplanes would no doubt get hit by some of that flying stuff.
The safest place to be (other than in orbit) would be at the poles. The closer one gets to the poles, the lower your speed due to the rotation of the earth. At the poles, you are basically just standing in place and turning around once per day. As long as the earth stays intact in our hypothetical situation, (i.e. the magical force stops the entire planet, just not things sitting on the surface) there is little immediate risk.
It doesn't matter how smart we are. Albert Einstein himself would die if he was slammed into a wall at mach 2.
Except people in airplanes, right?
I'd think a lot of insects would survive, too.
Except people in airplanes, right?
I'd think a lot of insects would survive, too.
I suppose it's possible an airplane might survive.
The plane's velocity wouldn't change relative to the air around it, so it might be okay for a few minutes. I'm imagining, though, that as the air begins to slow down from its 1100mph initial speed due to friction with the ground, all sorts of vortex effects would be created leading to sudden updrafts, cyclones, low pressure and high pressure areas, etc. I'm not sure the poor pilot would have an easy time staying aloft.
Additionally, coming in to land would be a problem after the runways had been literally torn from the ground and scattered about the place, the ground itself would likely be very uneven too, due to all the scattered plants and soil.
And, there might be a very small chance someone would survive on the ground. Sure, there's the falling and slamming in to mountains I mentioned, but even if the chances are slim, roll the dice 6 billion times and you might come up all sixes once or twice...
As for the polar regions, I suspect they'd suffer due to wind swirling around them causing hurricanes and what-not, and the tsunamis, so I'm not sure they'd fair any better.
But, some humans might survive.
Not sure I'd want to, though.
You'd be stuck on a planet where almost all plant and animal life has either been destroyed or badly damaged.
And all of it has evolved on a world expecting a day/night cycle (even plants and insects need rest periods and show lower activity when it's dark). Who's to say how long they'd live?
Without the spin to even things out, the "light side" of the world might end up as a runaway greenhouse whilst the "dark side" freezes everything and everyone to death.
There is something that hasn't been considered yet.
Okay, let's assume the Earth slows down over a day or so to avoid the 'brick wall effect'.
The Earth's rotation has a tremendous level of kinetic energy. The rotation stops. Where does all that energy go?
It comes out as heat. First the lakes evaporate and then the lower flash point temperature materials ignite. Later all the plants burst into flame. Eventually the oceans boil away with the earth's crust melting and boiling. I don't recall the exact figure but somewhere between a hundred and hundred fifty miles of the Earth's outer layers boils. That's quite a ways into the mantle.
This came up in a physics study group back in college and this is what the math indicated, with wild guess estmates of the boiling point of the mantle material.
Sorry everybody, unicellular life doesn't survive this one.
Okay, let's assume the Earth slows down over a day or so to avoid the 'brick wall effect'.
The Earth's rotation has a tremendous level of kinetic energy. The rotation stops. Where does all that energy go?
It comes out as heat. First the lakes evaporate and then the lower flash point temperature materials ignite. Later all the plants burst into flame. Eventually the oceans boil away with the earth's crust melting and boiling. I don't recall the exact figure but somewhere between a hundred and hundred fifty miles of the Earth's outer layers boils. That's quite a ways into the mantle.
This came up in a physics study group back in college and this is what the math indicated, with wild guess estmates of the boiling point of the mantle material.
Sorry everybody, unicellular life doesn't survive this one.
Well, obviously. I don't think you read the rest of my post though. We're smart enough to build airplanes and space stations, and to colonize the four corners of the globe (the poles, particularly). There are a lot of us and we are very smart. I have a hard time believing, statistcally speaking, that somebody wouldn't survive somehow.
The kinetic energy point is a thinker, though.
It would depend on whether people had time to prepare, now wouldn't it?
It doesn't seem that any spot on Earth would be survivable without specific preparation: the atmospheric effects would rip every airborne aircraft to shreds, and would also sweep the poles clean of life. I cannot imagine any location or facility today that would offer meaningful protection against the event. Even a parachutist caught in midflight, before opening his canopy, and somehow managing to survive his acceleration, ballistic arc and landing, wouldn't be able to find a survivable landing spot anywhere.
And spots off Earth aren't self-sustaining today, and won't be for the next century or so. If the calamity took place later than that, then there might perhaps be a moonbase or something where mankind might live long and prosper, and ultimately perhaps resettle their planet of origin.
Timo Saloniemi
It doesn't seem that any spot on Earth would be survivable without specific preparation: the atmospheric effects would rip every airborne aircraft to shreds, and would also sweep the poles clean of life. I cannot imagine any location or facility today that would offer meaningful protection against the event. Even a parachutist caught in midflight, before opening his canopy, and somehow managing to survive his acceleration, ballistic arc and landing, wouldn't be able to find a survivable landing spot anywhere.
And spots off Earth aren't self-sustaining today, and won't be for the next century or so. If the calamity took place later than that, then there might perhaps be a moonbase or something where mankind might live long and prosper, and ultimately perhaps resettle their planet of origin.
Timo Saloniemi
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