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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEVEN though we are standing still, HOW FAST are we moving?
When, after a long day of running around, you finally find the time to relax in your favorite armchair, nothing seems easier than just sitting still. But have you ever considered how fast you are really moving when it seems you are not moving at all?
When we are on a smoothly riding train, we sometimes get the illusion that the train is standing still and the trees or buildings are moving backwards. In the same way, because we "ride" with the spinning Earth, it appears to us that the Sun and the stars are the ones doing the moving as day and night alternate. But actually, it is our planet that turns on its axis once a day -- and all of us who live on the Earth's surface are moving with it. How fast do we turn?
To make one complete rotation in 24 hours, a point near the equator of the Earth must move at close to 1000 miles per hour (1600 km/hr). The speed gets less as you move north, but it's still a good clip throughout the United States. Because gravity holds us tight to the surface of our planet, we move with the Earth and don't notice its rotation in everyday life.
The great circular streams of water in our oceans and of air in our atmosphere give dramatic testimony to the turning of the Earth. As the Earth turns, with faster motion at the equator and slower motion near the poles, great wheels of water and air circulate in the northern and southern hemisphere. For example, the Gulf Stream, which carries warm water from the Gulf of Mexico all the way to Great Britain, and makes England warmer and wetter than it otherwise would be, is part of the great wheel of water in the North Atlantic Ocean. The wheel (or gyre) that the Gulf Stream is part of contains more water than all the rivers of the world put together. It is circulated by the energy of our turning planet.
https://astrosociety.org/edu/publications/tnl/71/howfast.html
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EVEN though we are standing still, HOW FAST are we moving? (Original Post)
yuiyoshida
Apr 2016
OP
You're right, we're whipping at..ahem...astronomical speeds through the universe. nt
ChisolmTrailDem
Apr 2016
#3
snort
(2,334 posts)1. Fact:
It's possible to long jump further when running toward the west than toward the east. Fact!
Scuba
(53,475 posts)4. It would seem the opposite would be true.
Calista241
(5,586 posts)2. This is just taking into account the rotation of the earth.
They're not even looking at the movement of the earth through the solar system, or the solar system's movement through the Milky Way Galaxy, which is estimated to be over 500,000 mph.
And we don't even know how fast our galaxy is orbiting around the Local Group's center of mass.
ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)3. You're right, we're whipping at..ahem...astronomical speeds through the universe. nt
melm00se
(4,993 posts)5. the article
beyond the OP's snip does talk about that:
Earth around the sun: 66,000 miles per hour
Sun and the Earth are moving at about 43,000 miles per hour
Galactic year motion 483,000 miles per hour
Takket
(21,583 posts)6. relativity is what is relevant to our own personal frame of reference