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Everybody watching this video lives on Earth, at least hopefully
Which means that you know the Earth
Makes one complete rotation every 24 hours
The speed of this rotation is what defines a day
But what would be some consequences if this speed doubled to once every 12 hours
How would this affect our daily lives?
First it's important to understand that the Earth spins at different speeds
Depending on where you are standing
At the Equator, Earth spins at a speed of 1670 kilometers per hour
The farther away you get from the Equator, the slower the spin you experience
So the Poles are where Earth spins the slowest
If Earth immediatedly began spinning twice as fast
The first thing you might notice is a little bit of weight loss
Because the centripetal force of Earth's rotation is stronger at the Equator
Everything weighs slightly less here than at the Poles
Currently, if you weigh 45 kilograms at the North Pole
You would weigh 156 grams less at the Equator
With Earth spinning twice as fast
A person that weighs 104 kilograms at the North Pole would weigh about half a kilogram less at the Equator
Which is slightly more noticeable
But a much more obvious effect would be the lenght of our days at 12 hours instead of 24
Days being half as long means that years will have twice as many days
730 days to be exact
So we would need to create a new calendar pretty quick
You'd have to adopt a new sleeping schedule in order to fit in your work and school during your daylight hours
So instead of getting 8 hours of sleep per night
Most people would probably be getting 4 hours of sleep
But sleep twice as often
If you're like me and stay up all night, well, good luck
Animals across the globe would also struggle to adapt their instincts
Specially nocturnal animals that would have to hunt at night with half the time they are currently used to
Animals that couldn't adapt would likely go extinct
Also, hurricanes would be dramatically stronger
Winds at the Equator would be deflected further eastward
And it would spin up hurricanes to faster speeds whenever they form
But that's not even close to the worst thing that would happen to our planet
The worst part about an Earth that spins twice as fast
Would be the water in the oceans concentrating around the Equator
And receding from the Poles
The higher centrifugal force would pull 100 meters or more
Of ocean water from the Poles here
And this would be wildly catastrophic
Almost all of Equador, Colombia, Venezuela, Brasil
Kenia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Northern Australia
would be totally underwater in this scenario
Forcing hundreds of millions of people to move either North or South
Only the highest peaks like the Andes in South America
Or mount Kilamanjaro in Africa would remain above the raising waves
Which would form new islands out of what used to be entire continents
Africa would probably be split into 2 different land masses
With a few islands scattered between them
While South America would just be greatly reduced in size
One final reason that it would suck to be in the Equator during this scenario
Is that the less weight experienced would cause the air to be very heavy with moisture
The whole region would be shrouded in a very dense fog
And would be subject to constant rain
Combine this with a super powerful new hurricanes
And the Equator would be an extremely hazardous place
This means the Equator would be a significant geographical barrier
Between the Northern hemisphere
And what remains of the Southern hemisphere
One final consequence would be at least a momentary loss
Of satelite-based technology like GPS
Geostationary satelites orbit the Earth at a speed that matches the planet's rotation
So that it can stay in place over the same spot on Earth's surface
If Earth's rotation speeds up then the satelites won't be in the correct positions anymore
Which means everything from GPS, TV broadcasting
As well as military and intelligence communications could be disrupted
The speed of Earth in reality is constantly fluctuating
4.4 billion years ago, our planet spun at a rate of 4 hours per day
And during the time of the Dinosaurs
It spun at 22 hours per day
Earth's rotation is actually slowing down every few million years
Because of the gravitational Pole of our Moon
And that slowing trend will continue on
For billions of years to come
Earth's rotation probably won't be getting any faster in the future
Unless we get hit by something enormous that we don't see yet
But then at that point we'd have a bigger issue to worry about anyway
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