What keeps us from feeling the earth moving?
The Earth rotates at 1,700 kilometers per hour. In actuality, you do “feel” the Earth’s rotation. You may not notice it, but it does affect us in minor ways. This all has to do with inertia and perspective. You have inertia of rest and inertia of motion. We were born into a moving world so we started off with inertia of motion. Since we are not accelerating or decelerating (at least not fast enough for us to notice; the Earth’s rate of rotation has varied over time) we continue living in our constantly spinning world. In the absence of this planet and atmosphere and any other gravitational effects, we would remain completely still in absolute space. What we notice on time scales we can understand from day to day comes solely from our perspective of our immediate surroundings. Since the Earth and atmosphere around us do not seem to move in relation to our position, we have no sense of motion. Even though the planet rotates about itself and about the sun, and our solar system rotates wit
We and our atmosphere are moving with the Earth, so there is no sensation of movement. Because there is empty space outside the atmosphere, there is nothing to cause any drag on it. The circumference of the Earth at the equator is 25,000 miles. The Earth rotates in about 24 hours. Therefore, if you were to hang above the surface of the Earth at the equator without moving, you would see 25,000 miles pass by in 24 hours, at a speed of 25000/24 or just over 1000 miles per hour. Multiply by cosine of your latitude to see how fast the Earth is rotating where you are. The Earth completes a full orbit (approximately 940 million km) around the sun in about 365 days (a year). Considering that each day has 24 hrs, it follows that the translational speed of our planet around the Sun is about 107 305.9 km/h or 1 788 432.2 m/s. The rotational speed of the Earth depends on where you are. At the equator, the speed is about 1670 km/hr, or 1070 mi/hr.
We only feel “movement” when something is accelerating or decelerating. The Earth is spinning at a constant rate*, so no lateral acceleration force is applied to us and we feel nothing. If you’ve ever been on an aeroplane, when it’s flying level at cruising altitude and not accelerating or decelerating, it’s going at several hundred miles per hour, but there’s no feeling of movement. At least not until the plane actually changes course or speed. *(Okay, technically speaking the Earth is gradually slowing its rotation due to tidal forces from the moon, but it’s by such a tiny amount that it’s imperceptible.
As far as I can recall from any of my science classes its inertia that keeps us from feeling the speed of the earth. Say for example riding in a car you feel the inital jerk of the vehicle as you take off, but as you come to a cruising speed your body is moving at the same rate as the vehicle thus you no longer feel the speed.
You never feel constant motion, you only feel changes in direction and the rate of motion or your velocity. If you were at the equator, you’d be zipping along with the surface of the earth at approx 1,000mph. Yes a THOUSAND. But, the earth’s roation doesn’t stutter so you don’t feel your velocity, all you feel is gravity pulling you towards the earth’s center. If you are going down a rather smooth road and not turning, close your eyes, if the vehicle is kept constant, you won’t feel much like you’re moving. [Now, you’ll know you are actually moving, the road won’t be perfectly smooth and odds are the speed won’t be absolutely constant, but you get the idea.] You’ll only realise you’re moving when the road bends or you hit the accelerator or brake pedal–i.e you change your velocity.
