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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA startling discovery: the rotation speed of the Earth is changing
According to the scientists of cosmology, the speed of the Earth has been constantly changing, however, what has been happening during the last couple of years is something rather untypical for our planet. From ever dropping down, the speed is now accelerating. How is it happening and what does it mean for us?
What is a standard speed of the Earth?
Certainly, in order to understand the pattern of the speed changes of the Earth, we should first look at the speed as how it is supposed to be.
What is defined by the speed of Earth depends on the time it needs to make one rotation. As you know, this takes 24 hours which is 86,400 seconds. Even though these are well-known facts, they are still made with some approximation. That is so since the normal speed pattern for the Earth is actually gradual slowing down. The process of slowing down is extremely slow itself, thus, it is difficult for us to notice any changes. According to calculations, the Earth needs more an more time for one rotation which in practice means some 1.8 milliseconds are added to the length of a day per century. As you can imagine, this is a tiny difference, however, if you look at the entire age of our planet which is nearly 600 million years old, you will find that the day used to be only 21-hour long when the Earth just appeared in the Universe. Needless to say, the difference between that early-Earth days and the ones we have today is pretty significant.
https://cbs11tv.com/a-startling-discovery-the-rotation-speed-of-the-earth-is-changing/
intrepidity
(7,241 posts)chowder66
(9,011 posts)tblue37
(64,982 posts)underpants
(182,279 posts)A sure fire sign.
Crunchy Frog
(26,548 posts)lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Nevilledog
(50,687 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)elleng
(130,156 posts)Gotta look for the moon now.
Sneederbunk
(14,208 posts)underpants
(182,279 posts)🌏
yardwork
(61,418 posts)ZZenith
(4,110 posts)newdayneeded
(1,939 posts)Will our voices go up or down in pitch?
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Jerry2144
(2,046 posts)Is the effect of the moon on the earth. The tidal bulge actually leads the moon by a bit. This causes the earths rotation to pull the moon a little faster, causing its orbit to increase by stealing rotational energy from the earth. This effect is very small, but noticeable over millions or years. The moon was much closer to earth when the dinosaurs were walking and a day was shorter.
Igel
(35,197 posts)the article seems to say that the Erath's rotation is increasing.
Not a transfer of rotational KE to the Moon.
What's left is having the Earth become more compact, I'd assume. But the site is as trustworthy as a silver Susan B Anthony two-dollar coin.
Jerry2144
(2,046 posts)Rotation rate or rotation period? Increasing the rate shortens the period. Increasing the period slows the rate. My Astronomy classes from last century talked about this effect and how the day is slowly getting longer as the moon moves slowly outward. I dont recall anything from those classes that would lead to the earth speeding up. As the polar ice melts, its mass of water will flow to the equator and increase the moment of inertia and also slow the earth. This will be a small effect and can change if the polar ice caps ever get rebuilt. Think figure skater pulling in arms during a spin to speed up and spreading them out to spin slower
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)Ummm ... what?
It's way older than that
Jim__
(14,045 posts)Dr. Strange
(25,898 posts)Jerry2144
(2,046 posts)Not as old as Ghoul-iani looks. He predates the earth, right?
csziggy
(34,120 posts)Crunchy Frog
(26,548 posts)They frequently don't have a clue about actual science.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,154 posts)All written by "Katie Hillson". As others say above, it might be automated, including translation.
fescuerescue
(4,448 posts)ProfessorGAC
(64,425 posts)Off by a factor of 7.5! Shabby reportage.
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)yardwork
(61,418 posts)- Ricki Lee Jones
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)and racing around to come up behind you again
~ pink floyd
boston bean
(36,186 posts)😜
roamer65
(36,739 posts)Response to diehardblue (Original post)
Jim__ This message was self-deleted by its author.
PSPS
(13,516 posts)Klaralven
(7,510 posts)I'm not sure whether computer operating systems are set up to accommodate the last minute of the year being 59 seconds.
Wounded Bear
(58,440 posts)determined by UTC in Greenwich England and the US Bureau of Standards. It can happen during the year and more than once per year.
All cell phones are synced to that.
Klaralven
(7,510 posts)They are a pain for computer systems, and this would be a good opportunity to do away with them.
No one but astronomers will notice the difference between UTC atomic time and observed solar time. Astronomers have to calculate sidereal time anyway, so they can do the adjustment as needed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_second
Kaleva
(36,147 posts)Adding a second to a year does nothing for those who find themselves in low Earth orbit.
Silent3
(15,020 posts)It might not happen, however, for two reasons.
First, the Earth might go back to the usual pattern of slowing down before enough excess rotation accumulates to be worth dropping a second.
Second, the whole idea of leap seconds might be abandoned. This has been proposed, but the decision has been postponed to at least 2023. It's possible we could need a negative leap second by current standards, but the standards get changed before it happens.
I've taken the trouble to design a clock that with display both positive and negative leap seconds, so I'll be very disappointed if all that work is for nothing!
https://shetline.com/video/leap_second_display.mp4
UnderThisLaw
(318 posts)when a rocket is launched?
fescuerescue
(4,448 posts)So any effect they would have would be to slow it.
But the amount of energy dispersed by a rocket in the moment or two "kicking off" from Earth is more insignificant than a drop of water into the ocean.
The amount of energy required to change the rotation is ridiculously ridiculously huge. I doubt that all the Earth nukes detonated at once in some directed fashion would be enough to make a measurable change.
UnderThisLaw
(318 posts)mention the advantage of launching near the equator?
https://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/projects/vss/docs/Navigation/2-why-launch-from-equator.html
fescuerescue
(4,448 posts)This supports what I just said.
When is launched, there an equal reaction and a counter-reaction.
The reaction speeds the rocket up about 17,500 mph. The counter reaction is AGAINST the earth. I.e SLOWS it down.
But the force applied to a few hundreds tons of rocket vs 5.972 × 10^24 kg of earth.....well the rocket goes really really fast and the Earth slows down so slightly that it cannot be measured by human instruments.
So yes the rocket gets a boost. The earth gets slowed so slightly.
Bear in mind the article says the Earth is speeding UP.
UnderThisLaw
(318 posts)Earth speeding up, higher velocity of a rocket taking off. I dont know how you interpreted my OP as what kind of effect the rocket has on the earth
fescuerescue
(4,448 posts)So I did the math. If the earth sped up, or slowed down by 1.8 ms per day.
That would impart a difference in speed to a rocket of 0.0000216154519421252 mph faster slow.
A light breeze would have about 500,000 times more impact.
GopherGal
(1,999 posts)You know how a wet dog will shake his whole body to get the water off? Mother earth has detected a Moran infestation and is ramping up the rotational speed to up the centrifugal force to try to fling some of the infestation free from the surface.
2naSalit
(86,061 posts)scipan
(2,296 posts)Days are not as long as they should be. Scientists know that the moons gravity pulls on Earth and slows its rotation, so that yearly, the days get about 20 millionths of a second longer. But Benjamin Chao has discovered a countervailing effect, one that shortens the day by about .2 millionths of a second per year. Chao, a geophysicist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, says humans have redistributed enough mass on Earth to affect the planets rotation rate. How? By storing water in artificial reservoirs, most of which have been built in the past four decades.
Chao estimates that over 2 quadrillion gallons of water that would otherwise be spread evenly in oceans are in reservoirs, lowering sea levels by more than an inch. To estimate the effects of this on Earths rotation, Chao assessed the capacity of 88 reservoirs worldwide that hold more than 2 trillion gallons, like Hoover Dam.
Most of the reservoirs are in the Northern Hemisphere, he says, so there has been a net shift of water northward, away from the equator-- and thus closer to Earths axis. That makes the planet spin faster, just as figure skaters spin faster when they pull their arms in.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/speeding-up-earth
So it's not speeding up, it's just slowing down more slowly.
teach1st
(5,928 posts)This seems to be a more scientifically valid article.
tavernier
(12,322 posts)When I was a kid it took forever for Christmas to come. I would wait and wait and make my mom show me the calendar and how many more days and talk to my friends about what Santa was going to bring me and wait and wait and wait
Now its like two days between Halloween and Christmas Day and even all the stores put out both displays at the same time. So it aint just me.
Response to diehardblue (Original post)
scipan This message was self-deleted by its author.
ananda
(28,783 posts)The writer appears to be foreign or else
practically illiterate in English grammar
and syntax.
It makes the analysis hard to follow
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Got the age of the Earth wrong by a factor of 7.5, and length of the early day off by a factor of 5.25.
2naSalit
(86,061 posts)I thought it was more like 4 billion or something like that.
Edim
(300 posts)Myrddin
(327 posts)the Earth's rotation slowed. Do your research!
I'll get my coat!
myccrider
(484 posts)"As you can imagine, this is a tiny difference, however, if you look at the entire age of our planet which is nearly 600 million years old, you will find that the day used to be only 21-hour long when the Earth just appeared in the Universe."
The Earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old, not 600 million. The length of Earths day was around 21 hours long 600ish million years ago, but it was about 6 hours long (iirc) shortly after the Earth formed all those billions of years ago. Plus the Earth didnt "just appear in the Universe"
Hopefully, they got the other facts correct.
Brother Buzz
(36,217 posts)Silent3
(15,020 posts)Brother Buzz
(36,217 posts)and in the fine print it expressly states I void EVERYTHING if I make any unauthorized changes.
I'm patiently waiting for my patch to arrive, but time seems to be dragging....
Silent3
(15,020 posts)No warranty, just me to fix my own code if it break.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Um, 4.5 billion years.
And the earliest speed was somewhere around 4 hours.
treestar
(82,383 posts)Maybe planets have that problem, too.
fescuerescue
(4,448 posts)Even a very tiny increase requires a massive amount of energy input.