The maximum speed of the Earth’s rotation at the equator is about 464 m/s, and a sudden stop would send you flying off the ground at a speed of several thousand kilometers per hour.

Joseph Levy, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at Colgate University, explains that according to Newton’s first law of inertia, you will be flying east at nearly 1,700 km/h, and no matter where you land (land or ocean) the force a hit will almost certainly leave you with no chance for life.

“The water will also feel this sudden acceleration,” Levy says (so before the collision, you’ll likely hear the ocean sloshing around).

Trees, despite their roots, are also unlikely to stay in place, just like buildings. The inertia that would push it all eastward after the Earth suddenly stopped would be stronger than the mortar containing the bricks, so they should all fly apart.

It is another thing if you were in Antarctica at that time, since the rotation speed at the poles reaches 0 km/h. Stopping the planet might only cost you a few bruises if you were standing about 10 kilometers from the poles.

At the same time, Levy says that a sudden stop of the Earth should hardly be expected:

“Nothing really stops instantly in natural systems.”

And what if it is about a gradual slowdown – a few days or weeks? It would probably keep you from circling the sky, but it still brought a lot of trouble.

“Over the course of a year, half the planet would be in night, while the other half would be fully illuminated. With consecutive turns,” says Levy.

That is, instead of 12 hours, the length of the day would be 6 months. The sun, which would burn continuously, would fry everything around, and a significant part of the water would simply evaporate under its constant influence. The night for six months also does not bode well – the lack of light and heat will also most likely destroy many plants, and the water will hide under a huge ice cover.

You may also have to deal with unexpected weather. On today’s Earth, which is fortunately still rotating, most of the sun’s radiation hits the planet’s equator.

“Warm air rises over the equator and descends over the poles after cooling,” Levy said (ocean currents follow a similar up-and-down cycle).

But when only half of the Earth receives intense sunlight for a few months, the planet experiences a second, lateral temperature gradient, making weather forecasting twice as difficult.

“The winds will run through the terminator [линия, отделяющая освещенную (дневную) и неосвещенную (темную) части небесного тела]returning cold air from the night side where it will warm and rise on the day side,” Levy added.

Our satellite can affect the Earth’s deceleration. It’s a process called “tidal braking” — the moon’s gravity creates an infinitesimal drag on our planet’s rotation, causing the Earth’s rotation to slow down by an additional 2.3 milliseconds every century, according to NASA.

But it is unlikely that the Moon will ever completely stop the Earth.

“The Earth is much larger than the Moon and, as a result, has a much larger angular momentum,” Levy said.

At the same time, Levy mentions using it as a giant energy source as one of the ways to slow down the Earth. For example, in theory we could use the planet as a flywheel system, accumulating kinetic energy from its rotation to meet our energy needs.

“If you use the momentum of a spinning planet to meet all of man’s energy needs, it would still take about 1 million years to slow the planet to a complete stop,” Levy said.

Source: Business Insider