If the Earth stopped spinning...

[Javster]

...would we be flung into space?

It's just that I was told this by someone, and I doubt it. Does anyone know?

[Tex]

I love hypothetical situations!

If it all of a sudden stopped, perhaps. Inertia and whatnot. Everything is shunted sideways at a few thousand miles an hour.

[andrewas]

At the equator, the earths rotation carries you at 1040mph. You won't be flung into space - in order to do that you'd have to start at well above orbital velocity so as to have enough speed after existing the atmosphere, and its obvious why no planet can rotate that fast - but you will be moving well over the speed of sound.

[Albert VDS]

The max velocity you could possibly go is 465 m/s, that is when you are standing at the equator.

You need to go 8km/s to get in to orbit, that 16 times faster.

You will however meet something very solid very fast, typically not a good thing for the human body.

[Scotius]

Add to this vision an apocalyptic, global wave of air, water and all kinds of debris travelling at speed of sound. Then planetary crust rippling, cracking, breaking all around the Earth and adding unbelievable amounts of lava and ash to the mix.

[CalculusWarrior]

I'll be 'that guy'. Stopped relative to what? Our rotational axis? The sun? The Milky Way galaxy?

[Motokid600]

If the earth slowly stopped instead is more interesting to me. The atmosphere would congeal around the poles and thin around the equator. The cetrifugal forces of the spin keep out atmosphere nice and spread out.

[Albert VDS]

I'll be 'that guy'. Stopped relative to what? Our rotational axis? The sun? The Milky Way galaxy?

From the rotation page on wikipedia:

A rotation is a circular movement of an object around a center (or point) of rotation. A three-dimensional object rotates always around an imaginary line called a rotation axis. If the axis is within the body, and passes through its center of mass the body is said to rotate upon itself, or spin.

So I guess it would be around it's axis and center of mass.

[Nikolai]

I'll be 'that guy'. Stopped relative to what? Our rotational axis? The sun? The Milky Way galaxy?

All inertial reference frames are relative. Since rotational frames involve acceleration by definition, they are not inertial reference frames, and thus are not interchangeable simply by choosing a different rotational velocity to call "zero".

In other words, if you're calling a rotational velocity zero that isn't actually zero, you'll have Coriolis and centrifugal "forces" popping up in your reference frame.

[Moon Goddess]

Here you go,

http://natgeotv.com/uk/aftermath/videos/earth-stopped-spinning

National Geographic Channel covered it for you.

[Dispatcher]

The Earth's mass keeps us here, not its rotation.

[AngelLestat]

Here you go,

http://natgeotv.com/uk/aftermath/videos/earth-stopped-spinning

National Geographic Channel covered it for you.

well they did a really bad estimation.

One thing that would happen for sure, is a venus like "super rotation" phenomenal. Where constant winds of 150 km/h or more blow to equalize thermal differences between night and day.

If the sun heat up always one side of the earth, the air in that side would heat, so pressure decrease meanwhile in the other side the air gets cold and pressure increase. This effect does not stop, so the only way to the earth find an equilibrium would be by constant winds.

The same for ocean currents.

[lajoswinkler]

National Geographic is not what it used to be. It's a sensationalistic piece of junk.

[Stargate525]

Define 'the earth'

Is the atmosphere stopping as well? If not, I imagine all of our buildings immediately blow over, and the earth is sandblasted by 1000mph winds.

[Everten P.]

Are you counting the atmosphere or the earth cause' if it's just the earth the atmosphere might erode the earth back to the Jurassic age. lol but seriously.

[lajoswinkler]

Winds would blow in either scenario, but differently. In any scenario, it's the end of the planet as we know it.

[randomness5555]

I would think that you would keep moving even if the earth stopped-also tearing up continent sized bits of land, and sending the oceans everywhere not to mention escaping lava. Pretty much the end of days for all but the birds.

[Stargate525]

I would think that you would keep moving even if the earth stopped-also tearing up continent sized bits of land, and sending the oceans everywhere not to mention escaping lava. Pretty much the end of days for all but the birds.

Even the birds have to land somewhere. Eat something. If anything, I'd predict the deep ocean environment to survive with the least damage.

[lajoswinkler]

The whole lithosphere would peel away. It would render the planet sterile.