Travelling without going anywhere

[Incorrigible]

Would kind of depend if the atmosphere stood still to or whether it moved relative to the earths surface

or to put it more simply, if there was any wind

I beleive that is the primary reason for hot air balloons to make progress

[Raify]

If you were able to 'station keep' in a point in the atmosphere (against the wind etc) you would travel 1 degree west every 15 mins.

[V8 Archie]

Raify said:

If you were able to 'station keep' in a point in the atmosphere (against the wind etc) you would travel 1 degree west every 15 mins.

But that would require thrust of some sort (normally from the wind as pointed out above). In the absence of any lateral force you would stay above the place you took off from as you are already moving at the speed of the earth's rotation.

[V8 Archie]

V8 Archie said:

Raify said: If you were able to 'station keep' in a point in the atmosphere (against the wind etc) you would travel 1 degree west every 15 mins. But that would require thrust of some sort (normally from the wind as pointed out above). In the absence of any lateral force you would stay above the place you took off from as you are already moving at the speed of the earth's rotation.

Erm... except that the higher you went you'd need to move faster to keep up with the ground. So you would move, but how far would depend on how high you went and how long you were at each height for.

[TheExcession]

Try this some time.

Find a doorway that faces west, stand in it, jump into the air and carefully note how you come down a little further west - that's the earth spinning beneath you!

Ex

[diddyman]

Raify said:

If you were able to 'station keep' in a point in the atmosphere (against the wind etc) you would travel 1 degree west every 15 mins.

Errr....

360 degrees x 15 minutes = 5,400 / 60 minutes = 90 hours in a day?

Surely 360 degress / 24 hours = 15 degrees/hour or 3.75 degrees every 15 minutes?


>> Edited by diddyman on Tuesday 7th December 17:57

[Simpo Two]

Incorrigible said:

Would kind of depend if the atmosphere stood still to or whether it moved relative to the earths surface

Aha - is it Newtonian or non-Newtonian? Wind aside, the atmosphere should be stationary at ground level (relative to the ground) and move faster the higher you go, as the friction decreases.

[BliarOut]

TheExcession said:

Try this some time. Find a doorway that faces west, stand in it, jump into the air and carefully note how you come down a little further west - that's the earth spinning beneath you! Ex

At first glance this appears to be true. I tried it I know, someone will always be daft enough to try and every time I jumped, I was a little closer to my gate.

Being the disbelieving sort... and having odd length legs, I turned round and repeated the experiment.... Still closer to the gate... turn through 90 degrees and still I ended up closer to the gate. Each time I jumped with my eyes shut so I couldn't trick myself.

You only need the cracks in the pavement to try it. I won't post how far I moved until someone else is silly enough to give it a go.

BTW Ex, you owe me some new knees

[BliarOut]

No one else daft enough eh?

[chief-0369]

nope

[BliarOut]

Oh go on... It works

[Raify]

diddyman said:

Raify said: If you were able to 'station keep' in a point in the atmosphere (against the wind etc) you would travel 1 degree west every 15 mins. Errr.... 360 degrees x 15 minutes = 5,400 / 60 minutes = 90 hours in a day? Surely 360 degress / 24 hours = 15 degrees/hour or 3.75 degrees every 15 minutes? >> Edited by diddyman on Tuesday 7th December 17:57

O.k. fine, I should have put roughly