This post is for those of you who like to actually look into things, and find out real facts instead of arguing with someone about things neither of you know anything about....which is one of my most favourite pastimes.
My friend Rich and I once had a conversation about what would happen if the Earth just suddenly came to a dead stop. I think it started off as a speculative conversation about whether it was possible that the Earth's rotation has anything to do with where wind comes from.
(I think we need to pause right here for a moment to applaud me for even having managed to drag an eminently sensible, logical, orderly thinker like my friend Rich into such an inane conversation. Creative time-wasting is not quite as easy as you'd think.)
The Earth's circumference is roughly 25,000 miles and it goes around once every 24 hours, so that means that in spite of my more recent experience at the PNE, I am somehow able to be on a ride that's spinning at about 1,000 miles an hour without throwing up.
Does Earth's atmosphere also rotate at 1,000 mph? Seems likely. Is there anything out there in space that might tend to slow that rotation down, even just the tiniest amount, and so contribute to the development of wind? Hmmm...not too sure, but it seems doubtful. Maybe solar radiation sets up drag, I don't know.
But if us, and all our goods and chattels, and everything that's on the surface and the interior of the planet, is all spinning at 1,000 mph, what would happen if somebody pulled the Emergency Earth Rotation Stop cable? Would me and my iPad and this house I'm sitting in and the trees outside and the ocean nearby just suddenly begin hurtling eastward at 1,000 mph? Would we burn up with friction even before doing our impersonations of bugs on a windshield, or would there be 1,000 mph winds blowing eastward right along with us, because the atmosphere is way less substantially bound to the rest of the planet than, say, bedrock?
I bet Steven Spielberg has seen any number of screenplays involving these questions, but none of them got made because no one can figure out how to indulge in that orgy of special effects and yet have Our Hero(es) somehow live happily ever after.
So, Faithful Reader, how about it? Want to look into it and see what science says about this? Come o-o-o-onnnn...be a sport, do my work.
Thanks, eh?
PS there's a really great story about the ancient Egyptian who figured out the Earth's circumference (and a lot of others things), how he did it, how accurate he was, here . I especially like the picture of him, and his apparently enormous skull:
Head for the North Pole. You'll be good until the ice melts a few months later.
ReplyDeleteExcellent plan as always, RJ. Head north, bring wood.
ReplyDeleteI see my attempt to get the picture of Eratosthenes' giant head onto the post didn't work out...(sigh)...still, subscriptions are now working I think, and you're signed up.
When I was little I thought the wind came from Who. I think it was a mix of book titles. Who Has Seen the Wind and Horton Hears a Who. The logic of that served me very well. I no longer question it.
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