What Happens if the Earth Suddenly Stopped Rotating?

What Happens if the Earth Suddenly Stopped Rotating?

Everything not attached would get displaced to the east, parallel to the surface of the Earth. The speed would depend upon your latitude. Only the people at the poles would be safe. You wouldn't go flying off into space because the 1000 mph maximum (at the equator) isn't enough to overcome gravity, which would still be present (Gravity is dependent on mass of objects in close proximity). If you survived, the resulting six month day and six month night would probably take care of you pretty quick.


1. Centrifugal force: force that makes things fly away from the center.
2. Centripetal force: force that makes things move towards the center.

Ok, here's how centrifugal force works: Inertia means that any object going in a particular velocity will tend to stay like that. Centrifugal force is inertia trying to overcome the constant shifts in velocity associated with spinning and stop turning.

On the matter of Earth stopping spinning: Since the centrifugal force of a human is irrelevant, due to the fact that it is much smaller than the gravitational pull of the Eath, and is counteracted by centripetal force, no gravitational changes would happen if the Earth stopped spinning. The mass of the Earth would be the same, and so its gravitational constant would be unchanged. One half of the Earth would be subjected to freezing temperatures, and the other half would bake. The lack of spin would remove wind, and the atmosphere would dissipate. All in all, the effect on your "weight" would be negligible.