Rotation of the earth

No reason when you consider that the north and south poles have reversed many times in the past and the Earth still spins the same way.

That's really awesome!!! One good vote from me!

Thank you europium

I have been trying to explain the allowance for magnetic deviation to trainees for years and how it varies from year to year. This should make it obvious to most of the would be navigators.

BAB.

It's all in the way we've seen things for years. The way maps are drawn, the way globes are produced. Whose to actually say that the north pole is actually at the TOP and not the BOTTOM.

History Dictates

Ah, trying to put a different spin on things, are you?

heh heh,

And why does a clock rotate clockwise

When viewed from its own north pole?

Except when you are sitting

In barber shops of old!

The truth is, it would be clockwise if we had known which way it was spinning when we invented clocks.

Look at it this way, we had a 50/50 shot at it... just missed.

But I have seen some clock, most in novelity stores that do run .... how shall I say it, with the rotation of the earth as seen from the north pole..

Silly, so the sun will rise in the east, that's why! Just imagine the confusion if the sun rose in the west!

I liked your humour. Thanks! But it doesn't answer my question.

- S. SARAN

The unfortunate an completely unsexy answer is: pure chance. Sorry.

This goes back to grade school, so I'm a little fuzzy about this. I believe I remember that all the planets except Uranus all spin the same way, which would seen to indicate a reason other than chance. Could it be related to the sun's electro-magnetic field and its effects on other bodies that have molten metallic cores?

Related questions that I do not know the answer -- does the milky way galaxy spin the same way as the sun - and is that the same way as the planets around the sun? Or is it mixed.

Given the answer to above, is relationship the same for all spiral galaxies? Why or why not?

For black holes? Pulsars? Comets? Asteroids?

The milky way galaxy is roughly planar; would the effect be the same for a spherical galaxy or not? Why?

Kepner Tregoe (sp?) says: ask what is the same, what is different...

Musings by Mag

Pure chance? Where do you see the chance? When God created the world, he gave the Earth the current spin. A determination. That's all.

Think again. Your answer confirms the antecedent answer which it purposes to refute.

I thought love made the world go "round.

The Earth turns counterclockwise so that when you look up at night, the stars are all going clockwise, and you know how to set your chronometer!

Hi vermin,

It's just as well all this was sorted before digital watches took over............otherwise we would be lost.............in time..........and space!!!!

Also, we now have a further way to determine the aliens among us... We have a 50/50 chance that if you see anyone wearing a watch that runs counter-clockwise, they're probably from another planet that turns in the opposite direction!!!

Be watchful!!!

Here's another one vermin................North isn't at the top????

Also, have you seen that steel rod that passes through the poles?

Yes I have been to both the Arctic and Antarctic many times. It's a rough environment up and down there. It's a place for only the strong of heart and the well-balanced. You have to keep your wits about you in such harsh surroundings.

I have only one word of advice, "Never, ever, lick the poles with your tongue!!!"

I can only but imagine the harshness of those polar regions, I have the utmost admiration for those that work there. The farthest north that I have been is John O' Groats and south........Herd Island..............and fortunately the stay was very short.

"Never, ever, lick the poles with your tongue!!!"

I like it..............."smarter than the average bear, Yogi."

Hello MOBI

Now we know why the Earth is slowing down.

The wind-up handle has fallen off.

Kind Regards....

I have found the key Sparky

Loos like it could be in SE Asia............proabably China or India.

This one doesn't spin.............it walks!!!

Hello MOBI,

quite some Engineering feat threading that steel rod through the centre of the Earth. Do you think we would just fall through space without it? And, do you not find it a coincidence our, first 'paper' globes also have a similar rod? very odd.

jfmfit

If my memory serves me correctly it was..............I think....................one of those oil drilling companies.............they went a bit too far and decide to leave the drill there, because they weren't sure what would happen if they removed it??????

Hello MOBI:

hope you are fine.

The globe in post 106 is interesting, and gives a lot of info'.

Like your Drilling explanation as well. Do you know if the 'nuts' have ever been found?

Of course, they could be writing hear!

jfmfit

Hi jfmfit,

I think seeing as we have NCP and SCP one can rightly assume that they are Coarse Pitch threads..............they must be of Swiss origin..............."that away we don't offend nobody"..................we need...............Indiana Jones on the case!

The Case of The Lost Nuts............is that animal, vegetable or mineral????

I think that it is important that we find those "nuts" or we may lose the poles!!!!

.............and then we will be....... "up that certain creek, in a barbed wire canoe, with a paper paddle."

By the way, if you need it, I have a whip!

ahha............I remember...........spinning tops I had one when I was a kid!!!!!

Never could get the hang of it.

No! No!........anything but the whip!

No! No!.........the whip, the whip!

Well, then you definitely have something left undone in your life! Go to the toy store and by a top!!! You can always tell the sales clerk that it's a birthday gift... Come'on!!! It's not like you're trying to buy the life-size Barbie!!!

Hello vermin,

I have a life sized Barby............................Oh, I didn't mean to say that.............It's not mine honest.

jfmfit

Is that a blow up one jfmfit...........come on no BS now!!!

Hello MOBI,

eerrrmmm...............how can I put this..........mmmmmmmmm, yes, blow up. You don't have any spare plasters? It has a leak. Problem is I can't reach where the leak is. .................

jfmfit

Hi jfmfit,

.....................the last one that I had................I bit it on the neck, it farted............and flew out the window.

Hello MOBI,

you are brightening my days with your funny (yes silly but funny) remarks.

I lost three like that. I don't know but, it seems as if they do not like my smell? Mind, I do hummmmm a bit............well, a lot really! We are not talking 'accomplished musician', we are talking stinky! LOL!

Re' the thing flying out the window, I found keeping the window closed prevented this occurrence. Did 'she'? realise there is a Law against low flying objects, particularly near inhabited property?

jfmfit

Just imagine if "she" got sucked into a jet engine..................I think that one would need more than a band-aid then!!!!!

Hi MOBI,

honestly, I think you are getting too silly now! Was the two 'O's' correct on the word 'too'? Wasn't sure there for a mo'. I suppose you could always buy shares in the sticking plaster company? Or the company who made the doll!!!

I actually saw a man on one of the American Aircraft Carriers, get sucked into a planes jet engine. He survived! Unfortunately, the engine was kaput! You actually saw his clothes being spat out of the 'flame end' and then it blew up!

I am enjoying this! Shame it has nothing to do with the original question? Do you think we will get 'reported' by that 'guest' who stuck his oar in earlier? Oh well, never mind, it's worth it, right?

jfmfit

..........too silly..........is correct...........it's too much.

man on one of the American Aircraft Carriers, get sucked into a planes jet engine.

Haven't seen that, but at a Naval Air Station, I saw a bloke walk behind a Firefly propeller driven aircraft, just as the pilot reved up the engine to full throttle..........he was tossed around like, if I can use the expression, a "rag" doll.

All he got was a broken arm and a few abrasions..........if he had been on a carrier I reckon he may have gone for an unscheduled swim.

................oops! was there a question to this thread............Oh, yes thats right, the earth does rotate........I think that that was established quite early in the piece???

Hello MOBI,

Oh, right it was correct................. I think anyone who goes anywhere near any kind of plain when they shouldn't is nuts!

I think it counts a 'plus' now you have mentioned the original question. I wont mention about the ins and outs ot the rotation of this celestial body!

Oh, no, I didn't mean me!

I am just wondering how much more we can squeeze from this really interesting subject? LOL!................It is interesting but, as you say has probably been answered by now?

Just got my dinner, potato's, roast ham I did myself and, sweetcorn. gorjus!

jfmfit

You didn't?

Saw it. One of the scariest things ever! I thought for sure the guy was hamburger! Just sucked him off the deck and right in BAM!!!

Yes vermin, I tend to agree with you................could be a terribly effective mincer.

Hello vermin,

can I firstly apologise for spelling 'plane' as plain? The spell checker does not tell you the wrong word has been chosen!

You saw it. Pretty scary? I couldn't believe he had only a broken arm or something. Luckiest man on that ship for sure.

Take care...........

jfmfit

If I go with my mummy.......I'll probably be OK............if the store is nearly empty!!!!!

But be prepared to receive a glazed over look as the toy store clerk (I meant, associate) asks you, "Top? A top for what?"

Hello vermin,

a whip eh? Do you think it could be wrapped around the nuts to get them off to check the north and south poles? Of course if the 'pole' goes right through the earth there is only one pole isn't there? And it depends whether you are a 'right-way-up' country like ours in the UK. Or an 'upside-way-up' country like Argentina or Australia as to which pole you choose as 'yours'?

If we stopped spinning, would we all slide 'down' to the south pole, or would they all slide up to the north pole?

I can't believee ti i rote thot wiht on smelling mistackes!

Take care.......

jfmfit

Hello MOBI,

I have my nuts..................metric in the UK. I just hope the two on the OIL RIG thingy going through the Earth are made of stuff which will not melt, and stuff like stainless steel so it does not rust! I think it would probably need something as big as an oil drill drilling rig to undo the nuts, don't you? I can't imagine a spanner that big.........Well, I can but, how are you going to lift it?.........Oh right, with the oil drilling rig. Of course!

Hi again MOBI,

if I may be so bold as to say 'us members' were having a good time leg pulling and stuff when a 'non member' (Very welcome, but why not join, IT'S GREAT!) had the cheek to ask us to get back to the subject! Well! I have never been so insulted in my life!..........Actually, I probably have, I just do not remember!.

I really do not understand though, if they are interested enough to post and re-post with replies and up-dates, why not join? Do you think the bit which says 'Guru' (or something similar) may scare people off?

Take care and I really like talking to you and everyone on here!

jfmfit

I couldn't agree with you more jfmfit, I'm too old and stupid to make too many sensible comments...........and like you...............its good to have the leg pulling, and I tell you, what with what's going on in the world today.............you need something to lighten the load...............brighyen the day!

Anyhow I have gone past being serious over everything..............I still break my teaching regularly with a couple of jokes or funny experiences probably half a dozen times a day............I couldn't bear listening to myself nearly 8 hours/day for 5 weeks on the trot.

Nils desperundum carborundum bastardo.

Hello MOBI,

yes, this IS a discussion forum. And as happens in any other discussion, people are human and try to bring a little levity to a discussion when it starts to get heavy?

By the way, if thats Latin, shoot the Teacher.

jfmfit

What is a tablet stripping machine?

Hi once again vermin,

a tablet stripping machine, is used to push the tablets and capsules from the plastic and foil they are often supplied in.

I am making one because I have eczema and stripping 4 x 4000 tablets from the foil packs makes my dainty (not!) fingers bleed.
This is the type I want but there £3000 it costs is just a bit to big.

jfmfit

Then it would still be rising in the east. Due to the meaning of the word.

So the east coast would be the west coast...

wouldn't that be confusing to all the rappers?

Hello Guest,

If you shift hemispheres, from North to South (and vice versa), the sun appears to rise from the opposite direction.

In the earlier years, when folks from Europe travelled to the Southern Hemisphere, this caused considerable disorientation, because the sun (when faced by the observer), appeared to rise from the opposite direction.

Kind Regards....

As I understand Astronomy, in this doesn't happen. In both hemispheres, sun rises in east and sets in west.

Only confusion will be at North Pole and South pole, as at these points it is difficult to define east and west itself.

I have seen (many times) Sun rising in west.

Whenever I flew just after sunset from ground, I saw it rising in west.

And this primordial cloud had clockwise direction of rotation before to be split on planets.

The author of this thread could be ask you(us) then WHY? And infinitive loop again. Though your answer is correct and here is real attempt to bring some common sense.

It's due to the spin that God put on the universe when he threw it out into the void.

Who has appealed folks to be more seriously?

While I won't denegrate any belief system, with the notable exception of Nazism (Nutsism), I would like to save the "God" card until we have exhausted as many other possibilities as possible.

It's just a quirk I have

Ari

While I won't denegrate any belief system

Nor will I my friend.............if a person wishes to believe that he descended from a single cell organism in some primordial soup, so be it (even if this single cell organism somehow miraculously appeared..........just look at the incredible make up of a single cell)..............and it evolved into every specie of insect, bird ,mammal, animal, etc. known to man.

......we then get to the ape..........and we descended from them???????

..........perhaps we were a bad mutation from the ape, because boy have we stuffed things up!

But where was a clock, in any wise, during the times of the primordial cloud?

A clock is just a means of measuring time. And time-variant phenomena have been around since time itself.

Yes...but clock time?

CR4 threads follow less of a track than well. . . it's a little more like a Sit-n-Spin.

As to the primordial crud question, please correct my obviously flawed thinking:

Objects in orbit have (roughly) the same angular velocity. Therefor, objects closer to the sun have a shorter orbital period.

Now, going back to the primordial disk issue, the "light" side of our forming proto-planet should be spinning slightly faster than the "dark" side, right? If this is true, why are 7 of the 8 planets spinning the wrong way around?

If the moon formation impact changed the proto-earth's direction of rotation, what is the excuse of the other 6?

I can't figure it out.

-A-

Hello -A-,

Judging as I think was said the Earth and the Milky Way spin in the same direction, and (forgive me for not remembering whom ) and thinking of, as you say this primordial disk issue having to do with the direction of spin of the Earth.

If another galaxy spinning at right angles to 'our' Milky Way, in either of an additional two planes, assuming angular momentum were the same there and, I think we have to think that it is, looking at it from the other galaxies point of view, it is our group of planets that are the 'odd man out' but, should not all spheres and galaxies spin in the same direction if angular momentum is constant? This perhaps seems to knock any suggestion that anything spinning other than the Earth does is 'odd'..................Just a question?

jfmfit

bhankiii,

Thank you for offering up an intelligent response. As to most of the rest of the respondents:

It looks to me as if we are not going to get a fare treatment of what appears to be a very good question. Instead, we get all this side talk about the nature and philosophy of "Left vs. Right," "Up vs. Down," and other such relativistic clap-trap.

To me, there is a good question that bears answering here. And thus far, the only answers have been, "because God wanted it that way," and "chance."

Both of these are weak answers.

To turn one's back on seeking to understand the methods of the creator, is to relegate one's self to the dark ages. If you have no interest in how the universe works, go live in a cave and stare at the walls. You will bring with you all you will ever need to know about God and man.

To say that things are the way they are due only to chance is just lazy. If the coin falls "heads" 87.5% of the time and you mark it up to chance, you are too lazy or too daft to see there is something you are overlooking.

rant over. sorry.

-A-

Nice rant, my problem is the answer to this post does not buy me groceries!

It would be interesting to know how the Creator made all this stuff up, and why He put this current spin on things. Bad pun is intentional.

The problem is first with the question. It is too limited and subjective.

Subjective and limited because it sees the question from only one view point, North Pole.

It is actually a very good question in that it makes you think of a bigger picture.

The fact that we are spinning is obvious. Why are we spinning? Because of the resolution of forces from Singularity/Big Bang/Creation. Our planet spins because our galaxy spins.

The complication comes when any of the planets spins the wrong way, either on its access or in its orbit. This need investigating and discussion is a great way to raise interest and consider possibilities. Answers maybe forth coming but the journey it's self is worthwhile.

Bumping minds with other technical types is always a reward in it's self.

I hadn't realised that any of the planets traveled in the opposite direction or outside of our flat plane orbit.

I am no astronomer but I know more about this field than the average Joe in the street. This means that I won't learn much from Joe, with the crowd that gathers here I learn something everyday.

What could be better.

BAB.

Though it's impolite to reply on question by another question. Would you like to answer why your right hand is named as RIGHT and your left one as LEFT? Who had defined these notions? Why does Right mean at the same time something good and more preferable than left. Why are handshakes used to be made by right hands otherwise in some countries it can be considered as insult. There are some things in our life that we simply should get as postulated. Simply get it and go ahead. If you wish get stuck here, ok I would offer you next puzzle about "right hand rule". http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/magnetic/magfor.html#c3.

By the way "clockwise" means that clock's hand is going from left to right. Firstly find out the answer about... (see above).

The hand on a clockwise clock only goes left to right from 9 to 3, from 3 to 9 it's going right to left.

To answer a previous question -IIRC, clockwise is the direction that the shadow moves on a sundial, which is why it was adopted for use on clocks. It moves clockwise because the earth moves counterclockwise.

Yes it's true. But when I associate myself with clock's hand I am going from left to right always. It depends upon of taken coordinate system. All is relatively.

Ok, let's your statement be placed in post #8 instead of mine. There are notions "right" and "left" and it's enough and you know what I did mind.

Hello bhankiii

Not on my clock

Kind Regards....

Everything down there is all "Alice thru the looking glass" anyway.

"The hand on a clockwise clock only goes left to right from 9 to 3, from 3 to 9 it's going right to left." - This is correct, as is your second answer.

"To answer a previous question -IIRC, clockwise is the direction that the shadow moves on a sundial, which is why it was adopted for use on clocks. It moves clockwise because the earth moves counterclockwise."

The 'wrist watch' is designed to be analogous of where the sun is in the sky at any given moment. To complete the analogy, the circumference should be twice as large as a normal watches, and 12:00am is also 00:00am and 1:00pm = 13:00, 2:00pm =14:00, 11:59pm = 23:59

/Ari

clockwise is the direction that the shadow moves on a sundial

Yes: in the Northern Hemisphere where clocks were first made. Surely this is the best answer so this question.

Yes: in the Northern Hemisphere where clocks were first made. Surely this is the best answer so this question...

sucks?

If you want to get philosophical who is to say that what we perceive as colors appear the same to everyone. For instance what I see as my red you might see as blue but we have both called it green from birth??? Just think how weird the world may actually appear...

I really don't know, the spinning started long before my time.

With the earth spinning at the same speed our day would have been ± 8 minutes shorter (imagine having to adjust your watch every day ). There would have been more days in a year (March would get 30 days).

And the schools! Here in SA the question "how long do the earth takes to revolve on its axis?" regularly pops up, and they expect an answer of 24h.

Here you are postulating that the duration of the day is less by 8 minutes, but diration of the year is same.

Why such descrimination?

Im interesting, and hope to ask the top thread, where is top? why north is called top?

if one designs a clock turn accroding to normal direction( anticlock direction) his product will be wecolem very much, I thnk. and he must be called a greatest invention today.

this is very good idea for watch manufacturer.

Saran,

Standing on "top" of the world, looking at the sky, the "BANG" that initially made the earth rotates around it's axis, and created the moon, was from the right hand side.

You probably understand that making earthly references as to the direction of the spinning is not correct. and I have brought it only to relate to your question.

Wangito.

up is up

and down is down

'cept when you're spinnin'

round and round

to make your view

all topsy-turvey

can become

a bit un-nervey

point the east

and then the west

you be the judge

on which is best

maybe you can

point a star

to try to learn

just where you are

but think again

them stars are movin'

along their path

they're always groovin'

but just be calm

just find a map

search it hard

round every flap

you'll find it soon

so never fear

that little sign

says, "YOU ARE HERE"

Hello DCaD:,

I like the poem! Is it one of yours?

jfmfit

It proves that Northern Hemisphere people only think they are on top.

BAB.

As I said in few other threads too, science has no answers to many Why s? It only knows how, what when..

Secondly, if earth were to spin in other direction (clockwise), you would have surely asked, why it is rotating in clockwise direction.