Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
Sometimes it seems like the world is just spinning faster and faster, leaving some of
us behind.
There just don’t seem to be enough hours in the day anymore, but what if there really
weren’t?
What would happen if the Earth spun much more quickly?
Let’s explore.
If you want more What If videos, check out our “Biggest What Ifs” playlist on the
channel.
Now get ready, it’s time to ask the question: What if the Earth Spun Twice as Fast?
If the Earth started spinning twice as quickly, there would be some pretty significant consequences
in the short term.
If the rotation of the earth doubled very quickly, from 1000 miles per hour at the equator
to 2000, it could take billions of lives.
The sudden change in rotation could cause a number of natural disasters, including severe
tsunamis on the Eastern Coast.
But even if the Earth accelerated slowly enough to avoid these immediate disasters, our troubles
would not be over.
Water around the world would begin to collect closer to the equator, eventually causing
a flood of equatorial regions including the Northern areas of Australia and South America.
The faster rotation of the Earth would also greatly increase the power of hurricanes via
the Corialis effect, causing massive devastation over time.
However, let’s imagine that humanity found a way to adapt to this new world.
How might everyday life change?
Well first and foremost, our days would be half as long.
As everyone that isn’t a flat earther knows, our days are determined by the Earth’s rotation,
as each part of the Earth has its turn facing the sun.
This means that doubling the rotational velocity would cause days to pass by twice as fast,
causing the day cycle to shift from 24 hours to 12.
There would be the same number of daylight hours, but divided in two.
So, for example, Toronto, which sees anywhere from 9 to 16 hours of daylight throughout
the year, could see just 4 to 5 hours of daylight at a time in the winter.
This would not only disrupt biological clocks, but could cause a shift in temperatures, becoming
somewhat milder.
With less time spent under the sun at once, temperature would fluctuate significantly
less throughout the day.
This would have significant effects on Earth’s flora and fauna.
Many animals and plants that had adapted to a world with a 24 hour day would likely struggle
to survive.
Hunting habits that require several hours of sustained light or dark would be seriously
hindered, causing a number of species to die out.
As far as humans go, our cognitive ability could allow us to forcibly adapt ourselves
to the new world.
While biology couldn’t be denied, we could certainly find ways to make it work.
We would, however, be met with a difficult decision: Do we completely change our society
to fit the new cycle, or do we simply modify certain aspects to make it all work?
In the short term, the latter seems ideal, but in the long term, the former might be
the way to go.
One inevitable change would be to sleeping habits.
Currently, most people engage in monophasic sleep, sleeping once every 24 hours.
However, with shorter days and nights, this might have to change to accommodate various
jobs.
However, there are some who sleep on highly irregular cycles, engaging in polyphasic sleep.
This involves breaking up one’s sleeping into several chunks throughout the day.
While monophasic sleep could work if we weren’t concerned with being out during the day, it
would result in a number of wasted daylight hours.
There are, however, a few ways we could tweak our sleep to better fit the new world.
The obvious way would be to simply sleep 3 to 5 hours every night, thus getting the equivalent
of 6 to 10 hours a night currently.
However, this biphasic sleep would mean things like school and work would need to be split
into two segments, and would result in double the commuting time.
One possible solution to this would be to have people sleep at work and at school, but
that would be both difficult to implement, and rather unpopular amongst the population.
Another method that could work rather well in this new world is called the Everyman Method
of polyphasic sleep.
This involves Sleeping in one large 3-4 hour chunk each day, and supplementing it with
2 to 4 short, scheduled naps throughout the day.
This would allow work schedules to remain largely the same, not needing to commute twice
as much, only requiring slight shifts in schedules to allow for a scheduled nap.
Studies have found that this is not the healthiest way to sleep, since it’s not how we evolved
to do so, but it’s one of the best options when living in a world to which our bodies
would not be adapted.
While each of these sleep schedules has its merits, one would likely need to be selected
for most people, to allow jobs to be performed at the same time.
If, as is rather likely, people would be out and about during the nighttime, outdoor lighting
would be much more important, particularly in more rural areas.
Also, depending on our choices regarding sleep and work, we could be living in a 7 day week
with each day divided into 2 days and 2 nights, or a 14 day week with 1 day and 1 night each
day.
In this case, once again, both options have their merits, and both would take quite some
time for society to adapt to.
On the bright side, this is rather unlikely to occur, since the Earth is actually slowing
down rather than speeding up, due to the gravitational pull of the moon.
If this did occur, it would likely be the result of a collision with a large object,
in which case our rotational speed would be the least of our problems.
Thank you for watching Life’s Biggest Questions, I hope this was interesting and informative,
and maybe even inspired you to look into it further on your own.
If you liked this video, please thumbs up and subscribe to the channel down below.
While you’re down there, let me know if you’d rather have 12 or 24 hour days.
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Life’s Biggest Questions, wishing you
the best of luck, on your quest for answers.