Could you stop / slow / reverse the rotation of the earth?

[CarCrazyDad]

Question I was pondering over some scotch last night

All the car journalists use the same sort of phrases

"This car has enough torque to stop planets"

It got me thinking, let's say you took loads of 4WD cars with slick tyres (to give ultimate grip) which had big torque

Would it be theoretically possible to adjust the rotation / orbit of the earth by utilising cars / trucks / diggers / etc in such a way that you can slow down/speed up (depending on which way you are driving, I guess)

For example if you had 1000 cars who all at the same time accelerate in the same direction , would this make any impact to the earth's rotation / spin / orbit?


10,000 ?
1 million?
10 million?

Is it even possible?

[zetec]

Just ask for Superman

[sjabrown]

I have once pondered if everyone in USA faced west and farted at the same time would that affect the weather?

[Radec]

zetec said:

Just ask for Superman

Might invent time travel as a side effect

[Kawasicki]

CarCrazyDad said:

Question I was pondering over some scotch last night

All the car journalists use the same sort of phrases

"This car has enough torque to stop planets"

It got me thinking, let's say you took loads of 4WD cars with slick tyres (to give ultimate grip) which had big torque

Would it be theoretically possible to adjust the rotation / orbit of the earth by utilising cars / trucks / diggers / etc in such a way that you can slow down/speed up (depending on which way you are driving, I guess)

For example if you had 1000 cars who all at the same time accelerate in the same direction , would this make any impact to the earth's rotation / spin / orbit?


10,000 ?
1 million?
10 million?

Is it even possible?

If you start running in one direction then your feet will drive the earth a minute amount in the opposite direction. Sounds great, but when you stop running, you force it back to the original state.

So a massive truck that weighs the same as the moon and has a huge engine would be able to stop the planet from rotating, but only if it stays driving… and never stops. Have you seen the fuel consumption on those things?

[Mabbs9]

This was mentioned (in passing) in my degree (Geology). They reckon it would easily transfer enough energy to melt the crust if you tried. So celebrating your success would be limited.

[Bill]

https://www.newscientist.com/lastword/mg19526202-4...

In short no. The earth weighs 6x10^21 tonnes, so that's approaching 10 billion billion tonnes per person on the planet today.

[The Wookie]

sjabrown said:

I have once pondered if everyone in USA faced west and farted at the same time would that affect the weather?

Would bring a new meaning to st weather if it did

[Jim1064]

Nope: even if you did have a massive car that was able to slow down earth's rotation, the moment you brake you'd give all the rotational moment back again.

The only way to slow down earth is by transferring rotational momentum to another body moving freely in space, and/or by friction - for example tidal forces have locked the Moon's rotation to its orbit around Earth hence we see always the same side.

[Cold]

Bill said:

https://www.newscientist.com/lastword/mg19526202-4...

In short no. The earth weighs 6x10^21 tonnes, so that's approaching 10 billion billion tonnes per person on the planet today.

But the Earth is in space which means no gravity and therefore no weight.

[Dave.]

What if we wrapped a really long rope around the equator, tied the end to one of Elon’s rockets and use it as a pull cord to spin it faster/the other way?

[Mr E]

The rotation of the earth is slowing. Every day.

[zetec]

What if we put an airplane on a conveyor belt…….

[Kawasicki]

Mr E said:

The rotation of the earth is slowing. Every day.

No, it’s speeding up due to global warming.

[louiechevy]

I can't remember what program I saw it on but I seem to remember the length of a day can be changed by the wind speeding up or slowing down the rotation!

[Trophy Husband]

No.

[CarCrazyDad]

louiechevy said:

I can't remember what program I saw it on but I seem to remember the length of a day can be changed by the wind speeding up or slowing down the rotation!

Only if there's a really big lorry?

[Monkeylegend]

If we put all the back seats down in all the cars in the world you could.

[bearman68]

Jim1064 said:

Nope: even if you did have a massive car that was able to slow down earth's rotation, the moment you brake you'd give all the rotational moment back again.

The only way to slow down earth is by transferring rotational momentum to another body moving freely in space, and/or by friction - for example tidal forces have locked the Moon's rotation to its orbit around Earth hence we see always the same side.

I've wondered a few times if we harnessed a pile of tidal power, would the moon move a little closer year by year?

[Kawasicki]

Jim1064 said:

Nope: even if you did have a massive car that was able to slow down earth's rotation, the moment you brake you'd give all the rotational moment back again.

The only way to slow down earth is by transferring rotational momentum to another body moving freely in space, and/or by friction - for example tidal forces have locked the Moon's rotation to its orbit around Earth hence we see always the same side.

You could use rocket thrust to slow down the rotation