3 ms·
Doesn’t driving west to east on a highway slow down the Earth’s rotation, via the power transferred into the ground?
by frozencooler 2y ago
Doesn’t driving west to east on a highway slow down the Earth’s rotation, via the power transferred into the ground?
- BurningFrog 2y agoOnly while you're driving.
- amarant 2y agoYes, but that energy is returned when you break
- danillonunes 2y agoThings get interesting when you reverse.
- logifail 2y agoReminds me of a glorious question from undergraduate physics: Calculate the change in the length of the Earth's day if the UK were to switch to vehicles driving on the right-hand side of the road rather than the left..
- antod 2y agoIs that due to all the roundabouts switching direction relative to the Coriolis effect? Hence the relevance of the UK? Presumably without roundabouts it's all random directions and balanced? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?
- logifail 2y agoIt was indeed all about the roundabouts. I forget the details but I do know it took us quite a while to get there(!) Those tutorials filled me with dread at the time, but with hindsight they were - how can I put this - a fairly formative experience. Watching your tutor use paper and pencil - and estimation - to calculate something like that was actually quite inspiring. That was, once it stopped being terrifying.
- rocqua 2y agoIt's actually driving north south that changes the rotation speed. Because your 'real' speed gets higher as you get closer to the equator, you 'steal' momentum from the earth as you get closer to the equator. Its effectively the same principle as a figure skater pulling in their arms when spinning, to spin faster.
- thayne 2y agoThen when you stop the angular momentum of your car is transferred back to the earth.