Right now, you are sitting comfortably reading this article, the body feels like resting without any movement.
However, in another frame of reference, we are in constant motion, specifically because the Earth always rotates on its own axis and revolves around the Sun. This rotation creates the length of a day, affecting nature and life on the planet.
But what if the Earth’s rotation was faster? Is the story any different?
In fact, how fast the Earth’s rotation depends on each location on Earth. Among them, the fastest is located at the equator, and it is true for all planets in the universe, because when the Earth rotates on its axis, its greatest circumference lies at the equator. So, with the same time of 24 hours, a point on the equator that wants to complete one revolution to return to the starting point will have to travel a longer distance than other points. And according to Popular Science, the equator rotates at a long speed of 1037 mph (equivalent to about 1668 km/h), while at a point like the city of Chicago, for example, it has a “slower” speed. That’s approximately 750 mph.
How fast the Earth rotates depends on each location on Earth.
As the Earth spins faster, the first thing affected is the problem of geostationary satellites . They inherently orbit the Earth at the same speed, so they can stay in the same position equivalent to a certain point on Earth. As long as our planet rotates as fast as 1 mile per hour, these satellites will no longer be able to stand in the position they are.
At that time, communication with satellites, television broadcasts or military operations… were all interrupted. Except for satellites that carry fuel and can adjust position and speed, all other types have to be replaced and of course are very good.
And yet, everything else will get worse.
First of all, some satellites will get lost. Geostationary satellites have a rotational speed equal to that of the Earth, which helps them to always point towards a defined position.
If the Earth rotated faster, the satellite would no longer hold that position. This disrupted communications, television broadcasts and military operations. Some satellites carry fuel so they can adjust their own position and speed, but others do not and need to be replaced, which is very expensive.
One Earth’s rotation is the length of one day on our planet. So the faster the Earth rotates, the shorter it gets. It is estimated that if the Earth rotated faster than 100 miles per hour, a day would be only 22 hours long. And our body has not yet adapted, instead of setting the clock faster than 1 hour, in this case, it has to be set 2 hours faster every day.
This change also has a significant impact on the life of plants and animals, which are inherently associated with a 24-hour cycle.
You may be weighing about 70kg right now when standing in the Arctic Circle, but if you are in the Equatorial region you will immediately lose 1-2kg without any abstinence from exercise. But that doesn’t mean you can lose any fat.
That means that when the Earth rotates faster, the weight of everything will decrease.
The faster the Earth rotates, the less weight of everything.
When the Earth rotates, there is a force called centrifugal force – which causes a plate on the table to be thrown out if we rotate it too fast. The centrifugal force generated will be greater as the object rotates faster, and since it is the counter force of gravity, the larger it is, the weaker the effect of gravity on the objects.
Currently, gravity is greater than centrifugal force, so we can stand on the ground. But according to estimates by NASA expert Sten Odenwald, if the rotation speed at the equator reaches approximately 28,000 km/h, then the centrifugal force will be large enough to overcome gravity and make you… hovering in the air.
The higher the rotation speed at the Equator, the more sea water will accumulate there. For every 1 mile faster, the water around the Equator will rise by a few centimeters in just a few days.
And if you try to double the rotation speed, it is really a disaster. Water from the polar regions – where the centrifugal force is weaker is drawn towards the Equator. “Except for the highest mountains like Kilimanjaro or the highest points of the Andes, everything in the Equator will be flooded,” said Witold Fraczek, an analyst at ESRI, a manufacturing company. GIS software.
The increased centrifugal force makes it easier for water at the equator to overcome gravity. At this time, the air here will be heavy with water vapor, the atmosphere will be covered with dense fog and clouds, possibly even non-stop rain.
And if the Earth keeps accelerating until the point of zero gravity, there will be many interesting but extremely catastrophic things happening. At this point, we will be witnessing the phenomenon of reverse rain – small drops of water rising into the air instead of rainwater falling from above.
But according to Fraczek, at 17 times faster than now, no one in the equator will survive to be amazed by this “beautiful” phenomenon. “If there were any poor people alive after nearly all of the water had gone up into the atmosphere, their greatest desire would probably be to get out of the Equator as soon as possible, which would be to arriving in the polar regions or at least the middle regions of certain hemispheres.”
After thousands of years when the Earth’s rotation speed is more than 38,000km / h (about 38624.26 km / h), the Earth’s crust will also change: the two poles become flattened and bulge around the equator. .
In fact, the Earth’s rotational speed is always fluctuating.
“It was a time of great earthquakes and extremely fast-moving tectonic plates – a dire prospect that threatens life on this planet,” Fraczek said.
The increase in Earth’s velocity results in a fast-moving atmosphere and affects the temperature. According to Odenwald, extreme weather conditions will become more brutal, storms will swirl stronger.
If the Earth were not rotating at all, the winds at the North Pole would blow straight to the equator and vice versa. However, because the Earth rotates on its axis, the wind’s path is curved eastward, also known as the Coriolis effect – which causes storms to have vortices. If the Earth rotates faster, the wind direction will be more curved, making the storm more powerful.
Believe it or not, the Earth’s rotational speed is in fact fluctuating all the time. Earthquakes, tsunamis or ice melts all have an impact on the Earth’s rotational speed, on the order of a few milliseconds. For example, if an earthquake accidentally swallows even a very small part of the earth’s surface and reduces the circumference of the Earth, that is enough to speed up one rotation.
In fact, the Earth’s rotational speed has changed over time. About 4.4 billion years ago, at that time the Moon was just formed after a giant object crashed into the Earth. According to Odenwald’s calculations, at that time, our planet was most likely shaped like a collapsed balloon because it rotated very very quickly and a day lasted only 4 hours.
But since the presence of the Moon, the Earth has gradually slowed down, decreasing by about 3.8 miles per hour after 10 million years. That happens mainly because of the gravitational pull from the Moon acting on the planet. So there is a high chance that the Earth will rotate more and more slowly instead of faster.
The current world has so many things to worry about from nuclear war, climate change to small everyday things like whether we brush our teeth correctly or not. So thinking about what would happen if the Earth rotated on its axis faster is not worth it. Because in fact that doesn’t look very promising in the near future and if it does, there’s a good chance you won’t live to worry.