# travel around the world from one spot
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/travel-around-the-world-from-one-spot/313339
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 20, 2005, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/travel-around-the-world-from-one-spot/313339 "2005-07-20T19:40:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@prolific9696](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/prolific9696)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2005, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/travel-around-the-world-from-one-spot/313339/1 "2005-07-20T19:40:06Z")
If you had a helicopter and flew it striaght up into the air and held it steady in one position, given unlimited fuel, would you eventually travel around the world ? đ
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2005, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/travel-around-the-world-from-one-spot/313339/2 "2005-07-20T19:46:35Z")
Not the first time this has been asked đ âŚ
> **[Hovering Helicopters - Do They Move w/ the Earth?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=264907)**
>
> That is my question.
> **[Earth, Gravity, Helicopter, rocket, and rotation question](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=235703)**
>
> Well, I have a couple questions. StraightDope has never let me down, so hopefully a few people can help me out. Iâm having poker night tonight at my house, and these questions were brought up previously and no one really knew the answer. Ok, First...
(And no, Iâm not reading both threads to summarise them for you đ )
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2005, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/travel-around-the-world-from-one-spot/313339/3 "2005-07-20T19:48:48Z")
No, youâd actually have to fly it around since the atmosphere is also rotating along with the earth at the same speed +/- wind direction.
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### Author:  [@Bendarr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bendarr)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2005, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/travel-around-the-world-from-one-spot/313339/4 "2005-07-20T21:00:24Z")
ok, my thoughts are this:
It all depends on how you view âmotionlessâ
If you select a spot on the earth as your âhoverpointâ , then no the earth would not âturn under youâ.
If for example you selected 3 stars to act as your guidpoints (3d triangulation) and assuming that the stars themselves arenât moving and ignore any other movement except the Earthâs rotation along with no atmospheric effets then yes the Earth would âTurn under youâ.
My personal viewpoint, I could be mistaken.
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### Author:  [@Bendarr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bendarr)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2005, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/travel-around-the-world-from-one-spot/313339/5 "2005-07-20T21:03:16Z")
Oh one other thing I forgot to mention, the movement would not occur if you took off from the poles. the movement would be greatest at the equator and decreasing as you got closer to either pole.
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### Author:  [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/travel-around-the-world-from-one-spot/313339/6 "2005-07-20T21:28:44Z")
> [@Hampshire](#):
>
> No, youâd actually have to fly it around since the atmosphere is also rotating along with the earth at the same speed +/- wind direction.
This isnât entirely true as the air mass lags slightly overall but it is certainly much closer to being fixed to earth rotation than not.
If the air mass was âstationaryâ with the earth rotating under it the west wind in the northern US latitudes would be about mach 1 and getting faster as you got to the equator.