What If #13

What if the Earth stopped spinning? Would there no longer be any gravity? What would happen to humans and other animals? Well I have researched a little bit into this interesting topic, and this is what I have come up with. If the earth suddenly stopped spinning, the Earth's atmosphere would still be moving at a constant rate of 1100 mph. The Earth's surface would be wiped clean of everything that isn't anchored down and strong enough ti withstand over 1000 miles per hour wind. The case would be different if the Earth slowly stopped spinning. When the Earth stopped spinning as much as physics will allow, the Earth will have permanent spots of day and night in a cycle around the sun. If the rotation reached 1 revolution per 365 days, sun synchronization would take place, which is the cause of the permanent night and day in a year. The increased temperature at the equator would cause the wind systems to move away from the equator toward the poles rather than parallel as they are now. Another theory tied into all of this is the magnetic field of Earth would possibly deteriorate, leaving us with no protection from cosmic rays or high-energy particles such as UV light and radiation from other stars. This would cause many people to die if they stayed outside for any great amount of time. The Earth's gravity would be effected as well. The spin of the Earth diminishes a very slight amount of gravity. Imagine being on a carousel or any spinning ride, when the ride spins fast, the spinning tends to pull one towards the outside of the ride. This is due to centrifugal force, this force alleviates some gravity from Earth's mass as it spins. Without that spin, the Earth's mass would have a greater effect, but only just slightly. The earth's pull of gravity is equivalent to 9.78m/s(with spin figured in), without the spin, the earth's pull would be the normal constant used for gravity, 9.81m/s. This is only a difference of 0.3%, so if you weighed 200lbs now, you would be 200.6lbs if the Earth stopped spinning. An interesting fact that made me laugh, was that water would start going straight down the drain instead of swirling in a direction towards the equator. Next time you flush, watch the water go down, it spins clockwise if you are in the northern hemisphere of the Earth, and counter-clockwise for the southern hemisphere. This is due to the Coriolis Effect. The same effect also has to be taken into account in far distance sniper shots. The Earth's spin actually moves the object rooted to the Earth at about 1,000mph in relation to the object no longer moving with the Earth. Think of it this way, if we could make a ball float in the air indefinitely without any obstructions or outside effects(weather, wind), the ball would rotate around the Earth just as the moon does. The ball would end up on the other side of the world due to the spin, but this could never be experimented because of wind, atmosphere, and other outside forces. Remember that the Coriolis Effect is only an effect and not a force, it only explains what the spin does. The Coriolis Effect also determines the spin of long lasting vortices such as hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones. The spin is opposite in vortices in weather patterns due to the force of the air trying to rush towards a low pressure area. Overall, I think that the Earth no longer spinning would be terrible for all life. Save Earth, it's the only planet with chocolate!