- #1
Sidewalk
- 10
- 0
Hello there -
You may remember me from such lackluster questions as what happens to light when it fades? Thanks to everyone for clear responses on that one, I get it now.
Anyhow, my new confusion surrounds the rotation of the planet.
OK - The Earth rotates once on it's axis in 24 hours in what for the purposes of simplicity I'll say is in an easterly direction, or counter clockwise if we were looking down on the planet from above the north pole.
My question involves flight times, say from Tokyo to a city somewhere in the eastern hemisphere located directly on the opposite side of the planet, for the sake of argument let's say Kansas City. Let's say that the flight itself takes roughly 12 hours traveling in an easterly direction. It stands to reason that if there were limited or no wind that the traveling time would be the same for the trip heading westward.
Now, here comes the stupid element of my question: Since the Earth is spinning at a rate of one rotation per 24 hours, it's rotates halfway around in 12 hours. It seems fair to me (although I know logically it's wrong) to imagine that one could leave Tokyo, float directly up off the Earth's surface in a helicopter for example for 12 hours, then go straight down again, and land somewhere on the other side of the planet. I know this is wrong, I'm just not sure why.
I assume that the reason is that our atmosphere is rotating at the same speed as the earth, so although we think we're staying still we're actually rotating right along with it if we float straight up. If this is the case then wouldn't flying in one direction (along with the planet's spin) get us to our destination at a different time than if we were traveling against the grain so to speak?
Sorry for a long winded simple question, but I'm interested in finding out...
Thanks again -
Sidewalk
You may remember me from such lackluster questions as what happens to light when it fades? Thanks to everyone for clear responses on that one, I get it now.
Anyhow, my new confusion surrounds the rotation of the planet.
OK - The Earth rotates once on it's axis in 24 hours in what for the purposes of simplicity I'll say is in an easterly direction, or counter clockwise if we were looking down on the planet from above the north pole.
My question involves flight times, say from Tokyo to a city somewhere in the eastern hemisphere located directly on the opposite side of the planet, for the sake of argument let's say Kansas City. Let's say that the flight itself takes roughly 12 hours traveling in an easterly direction. It stands to reason that if there were limited or no wind that the traveling time would be the same for the trip heading westward.
Now, here comes the stupid element of my question: Since the Earth is spinning at a rate of one rotation per 24 hours, it's rotates halfway around in 12 hours. It seems fair to me (although I know logically it's wrong) to imagine that one could leave Tokyo, float directly up off the Earth's surface in a helicopter for example for 12 hours, then go straight down again, and land somewhere on the other side of the planet. I know this is wrong, I'm just not sure why.
I assume that the reason is that our atmosphere is rotating at the same speed as the earth, so although we think we're staying still we're actually rotating right along with it if we float straight up. If this is the case then wouldn't flying in one direction (along with the planet's spin) get us to our destination at a different time than if we were traveling against the grain so to speak?
Sorry for a long winded simple question, but I'm interested in finding out...
Thanks again -
Sidewalk