hang on because we're about to screech
to a halt
that's right the earth is going to stop
spinning for five seconds
how much damage would this sudden stop
cause
what would you experience in different
parts of the world
and when the earth starts spinning again
would it still be habitable
this is what if and here's what would
happen if the earth stopped spinning for
five seconds
the earth makes one full rotation on its
axis in one day this gives us day and
night
the earth is spinning because of
collisions that happened when the planet
was forming
4.6 billion years ago
as a huge disk of gas and dust swirled
around the sun
dust and rock grains clumped together
generating forces that kept the planet
rotating in one direction
you could imagine it much like a figure
skater spinning faster and faster
and with almost no forces in space to
slow the planet down we keep rotating
and we'll continue to for billions of
years
but if the earth stopped on a dime would
you fly right off the surface
if the planet came to an abrupt halt
the atmosphere would still be in motion
that means though everything has lurched
to a stop
powerful winds would continue to blow
and these wouldn't be a strong breeze
they would be many times stronger than
any storm you've ever encountered
now the strength of these winds would
differ based on where you were on the
planet
at or near the equator the earth is
rotating the fastest
here you'd experience wind speeds of
sixteen hundred and seventy kilometers
per hour
those winds would knock you off your
feet
but forget about you
these winds would be strong enough to
tear up the earth's crust
so it wouldn't matter if you were out in
an open field or inside a steel
reinforced building
these winds would obliterate you
for context the strongest f5 tornadoes
have velocities up to
511 kilometers per hour
and these storms can move houses off
their foundations
send cars flying and even tear apart
concrete structures
the winds from the earth's emergency
brake would be three times stronger than
that so if the crust under your feet
didn't crumble
you and a lot of other stuff would
likely go flying a great distance
but
not off the face of the earth
the escape velocity or the speed you
need to escape the earth's gravitational
forces and enter space is about 40 000
kilometers per hour
in other parts of the world like new
zealand or france you'd experience
slightly weaker winds but at 1180
kilometers per hour
these would still be much stronger than
any storm ever
these winds would pretty much destroy
everything but they wouldn't be the only
hazard you'd need to keep an eye out for
in these short five seconds
our planet is not a perfect sphere
it bulges near the equator due to the
centrifugal forces generated by the
planet's rotation
if the rotation stopped the earth would
transform quickly into a perfect sphere
all the water gathering near the equator
would flow away toward the poles
generating a massive tsunami
five seconds later when the planet
returned to its full speed rotation
that water would backtrack a wall of
water would slam into everything and
everyone
twice
that's one heck of a storm
maybe the only place you'd be safe in
this scenario is near the north or south
poles
here the wind would be the mildest
now you must be relieved to hear that
the earth has returned to its normal
rotation after all this but like i said
there would be nothing left on it
every building all farmland and all
technology would be demolished beyond
recognition
billions of people if not every single
person on earth would die from the brute
force of being slammed by the massive
gusts of wind
so
if you're looking to survive this
apocalyptic scenario you'd better start
building an underground bunker
luckily it's expected the earth won't
come to a halt any time in the next few
billion years
yeah and before that the sun would burn
out and turn into a red giant
but
that's a story
for another
what if
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