# Earth's Core
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core/160444
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 11, 2003, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core/160444 "2003-03-11T00:17:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2003, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core/160444/1 "2003-03-11T00:17:50Z")
I just saw a preview for a movie coming out called “The Core.” Apparently the core of the earth stops spinning. I know it’s a movie, but is that possible?
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### Author:  [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2003, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core/160444/2 "2003-03-11T00:22:11Z")
Whoa, I really messed up the forum placement. Let me go find someone to move this to GQ.
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2003, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core/160444/3 "2003-03-11T00:46:52Z")
It could be possible, I suppose, if you figured out a way to apply a sufficiently large force opposing the spin until it stops, and you also figure out a way to bleed off the angular momentum. Can you think of a way? I can’t.
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### Author:  [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2003, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core/160444/4 "2003-03-11T01:53:34Z")
I for one never realized the earth’s core rotated independantly of the rest of the earth. Apparently it does, but I can’t wrap my hear around that.
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### Author:  [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core/160444/5 "2003-03-11T01:54:39Z")
or my head
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### Author:  [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2003, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core/160444/6 "2003-03-11T02:19:03Z")
Fair enough: off to GQ.
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### Author:  [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core/160444/7 "2003-03-11T03:05:31Z")
[Quote]
_from Basic Facts about the Earth’s Core_
**[ul]
[li]As the nascent Earth cooled and dissipated its internal heat toward the surface, some molten iron began to solidify to create the dense, solid inner core. [/li][li]Enormous pressure keeps the inner core solid in a region of temperatures in the range of 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit and possibly much higher. [/li][li]The inner core is surrounded by a fluid iron outer core.[/li][li]Fluid iron has continued to solidify at the boundary between the two cores, so that over a billion years, the inner core has grown steadily to a present diameter of 1,500 miles. (The inner and outer core together are 4,350 miles wide and the Earth’s diameter is about 7,900 miles.)**[/ul][/li][/Quote]
> [@](#):
>
> \*originally posted by \*
> **if you figured out a way to apply a sufficiently large force opposing the spin until it stops, and you also figure out a way to bleed off the angular momentum.**
The big problem is how would you get to the core without tearing up everything around it?
[ul]:eek: [sup] **But can you imagine the whiplash!** [/sup][/ul]
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### Author:  [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2003, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core/160444/8 "2003-03-11T04:27:44Z")
Could a giant square rod (keystock perhaps) of some really hard, solid, loooooooong metal be punched all the way thru to stop the core from spinning?
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### Author:  [@FranticMad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FranticMad)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2003, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core/160444/9 "2003-03-11T04:51:09Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Muldoon III \*
> \*\*Could a giant square rod (keystock perhaps) of some really hard, solid, loooooooong metal be punched all the way thru to stop the core from spinning? \*\*
No. It would melt from the temperature and pressure. The mass of the core is unimaginably large compared to anything we experience.
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2003, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core/160444/10 "2003-03-11T05:02:30Z")
…and if the giant rod didn’t melt, it would simply break. The forces involved are rather large.
In general, fluid bodies don’t rotate at constant speed. The sun and Jupiter both show differential rotation on the surface (different rotation at different latitiudes).