$60,000.00 question

[RAD4921]

Does the Earth rotate clockwise or counterclockwise?

[check]

Depend's on where you're looking at it from. Looking down on it above the North Pole, it's counterclockwise. Above the South Pole, it's clockwise.

[RAD4921]

You got it! The Earth is rotating both clockwise and counterclockwise depending on which pole you are looking at.

[check]

Nice. Now when do I get my $60,000?

[chroot]

Is this supposed to be a difficult question or something?

- Warren

[check]

Difficult or not, I want my $60,000!

[russ_watters]

You're all wrong - it rotates west to east.

[Phobos]

As a forum moderator, I get a 10% cut of this deal.

[RAD4921]

The question is not difficult if you think about it. The question was meant to catch people off guard who jump to conclusions. Anothe question is what president is on the one hundred dollar bill and the answer is no president. Not a difficult question if you think about but one that can easily be missed by reaching for what appears to be the obvious (quit breaking your arm patting yourself on the back) As for the 64 grand... I owe money to a list of people as long as my arm... sorry but get in line:)

[chroot]

In the future, please place "brain teaser" type questions -- even if, like this one, they barely even tickle the mind -- in the Brain Teasers forum.

- Warren

[Phobos]

barely even tickle the mind

At least to the luminaries at PF.
'Tis scary how many layfolk have no clue about it.

[Gokul43201]

Who said the Earth rotates ? Hogwash !

The Earth is a pentagon with 6 corners swimming on the surface of a torus (which is something like a bull, I believe).

www.flat-earth.org/

[Njorl]

All my clocks are digital, so nothing rotates clockwise. I now refer to things rotating toiletwise or counter-toiletwise. This becomes confusing when I converse with those on the other side of the equator.

Njorl

[The Bob]

We do have a laugh, don't we? :biggrin:

The Bob

[chroot]

Njorl,

Unless your southern friends buy their toilets from the same company as you.

- Warren

[mercmisfire]

well, considering that most people here seem to think this an absurdly easy question, I may be in for some ridiculing, but here goes : 1) I assume that the earth itself (the phsyical land mass) moves in only on direction -- if not, then I'm screwed and give up, (2) as to why it would appear to be moving different directions, I can only hazard a guess -- please tell me if I am right : the earth is a sphere and so narrows as one approaches the poles; the earth will have the greatest speed where it is widest -- that is, at the equator, and have speeds diminishing equally on both sides of the equator as one approaches the poles (narrower earth = less distance covered in same time (one day) = slower speed) --> air leaving the equator will maintain the eastward speed it had at the equator, but, as the earth slows, will appear to be moving faster eastward than the earth --> thus, looking straight on at the earth, all air moving north or south will be deflected to on'e right side (if one drew a line from the equator the north it would go right; if one drew from the equator to the south, it would go right) --> looking down at the right curving air (that is, looking from the north), it will appear to be turning left (counterclockwise) --> looking up at the right curving air (that is, looking up from the south), the air will appear to be moving right (clockwise). Is this correct ?
-->merc

[Tom McCurdy]

Gokul43201 that really is a funny organization

[Gokul43201]

well, considering that most people here seem to think this an absurdly easy question, I may be in for some ridiculing, but here goes : 1) I assume that the earth itself (the phsyical land mass) moves in only on direction -- if not, then I'm screwed and give up, (2) as to why it would appear to be moving different directions, I can only hazard a guess -- please tell me if I am right : the earth is a sphere and so narrows as one approaches the poles; the earth will have the greatest speed where it is widest -- that is, at the equator, and have speeds diminishing equally on both sides of the equator as one approaches the poles (narrower earth = less distance covered in same time (one day) = slower speed) --> air leaving the equator will maintain the eastward speed it had at the equator, but, as the earth slows, will appear to be moving faster eastward than the earth --> thus, looking straight on at the earth, all air moving north or south will be deflected to on'e right side (if one drew a line from the equator the north it would go right; if one drew from the equator to the south, it would go right) --> looking down at the right curving air (that is, looking from the north), it will appear to be turning left (counterclockwise) --> looking up at the right curving air (that is, looking up from the south), the air will appear to be moving right (clockwise). Is this correct ?
-->merc

Hmmm...not really. This really has nothing to do with winds or with the shape of the Earth. Take any object spinning about some axis. Look at this object from one end of the axis and then from the other....and you'll see !

[mercmisfire]

I can be really friggin obtuse sometimes; in my whole lengthy explanation, I ended up saying that the winds move the same direction (the direction that the earth is spinning) and that that same direction looks different depending on how you are oriented -- what I failed to realize is that if I just said the earth is rotating one direction and looks different depending on how you are oriented, it would be the same thing.
punching myself for always making things more complicated,
-->merc

[chroot]

Take a wall clock in your hands. Look at the direction the hands of the clock are moving -- clockwise, of course. Now turn it around, so you're looking at the back of it. Visualize which way the hands are moving. Notice that it's counter-clockwise when seen from the back.

- Warren

[Monique]

Ok.. so who here has a globe at home with the southpole pointing up :confused:

[Gokul43201]

But my globe hangs from the ceiling...and I like to gaze at it lying down on the floor.

[The Bob]

I unscrewed my globe and put it back on the axis so that the Earth's Inclination of its axis was know 203.93° (basically upside down) so I would see what it was like to look at the Earth from China. Not only did I not realise that China was in the Northen Hemisphere (so not directly through the Earth to us) but also that the world looked rather silly (like me standing on my head). So my globe spins upside down with south pointing up and so you are all wrong accroding to my globe (lol), but in space this could be. As space has not really got a gravitaional direction like the Earth it means that you do not know it you are standing up or laying horizontal, IT IS ALL THE SAME!!!!! So we can't really say that the Earth is 'pointing up'. So far as we know Uranus is 'pointing up' and that is said to be inclinded to its axis by 97.86°. So the Earth could actually be inclinated by 285.59° and be 'pointing' down.

Just a thought.

The Bob (2004 ©)

[Monique]

You know, from my perspective the earth is not rotating clockwise or counterclockwise, I think it is a universal perception that it is infact rolling to the right!

[The Bob]

We are just getting further and further into this. Sherlock Holmes said that 'How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?' We need to start with the proving facts wrong.

He He

The Bob (2004 ©)