# What if the earth stopped spinning? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 30, 2014, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985 "2014-06-30T08:16:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2014, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985/21 "2014-06-30T23:29:28Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > That’s why people are talking about this new equatorial continent. The lack of spinning would cause a redistribution of mass, but you’re claiming overall shrinking, which would require a reduction in total mass. I think Shakes is saying there would be a reduction in volume, not mass and with the Earth’s creamy nougat center…think about reducing the volume of a Snickers bar. I don’t know if he’s right or wrong, but that’s what he’s saying. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985/22 "2014-07-01T01:30:26Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I think Shakes is saying there would be a reduction in volume, not mass and with the Earth’s creamy nougat center…think about reducing the volume of a Snickers bar. > > I don’t know if he’s right or wrong, but that’s what he’s saying. Yes, thank you. I articulated it poorly in my earlier post. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985/23 "2014-07-01T03:51:23Z")
What if the entire universe except the Earth disappeared? Would we still be spinning? How could we tell? ---
**Author:** ![sbunny8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@sbunny8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbunny8)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985/24 "2014-07-01T04:57:55Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > What if the entire universe except the Earth disappeared? Would we still be spinning? How could we tell? Yes, we would still be spinning and we could tell by the Coriolis effect. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985/25 "2014-07-01T05:27:00Z")
> [@sbunny8](#): > > Yes, we would still be spinning and we could tell by the Coriolis effect. Any other way? And if we stopped spinning in such a dark universe, would the coriolis effect stop? I’m assuming that we need big storms to see it, as the coriolis effect supposedly is too weak to actually affect bathtubs and sinks. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985/26 "2014-07-01T06:31:16Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Any other way? > > And if we stopped spinning in such a dark universe, would the coriolis effect stop? > > I’m assuming that we need big storms to see it, as the coriolis effect supposedly is too weak to actually affect bathtubs and sinks. Centrifugal force? But I guess you wouldn’t notice it unless the earth stopped spinning abruptly. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985/27 "2014-07-01T07:02:09Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > I think the point is that the lack of spinning _wouldn’t_ cause a redistribution of mass – at least not right away. The air would redistribute quickly, the water soon after, but the rock would take quite some time because it’s a lot more rigid than the other two. I’m not at all sure it’s rigid enough to avoid immediate collapse however. This has come up before in discussions about hypothetical oddly shaped planets, and on a planetary scale rock or any other real world material has effectively _no_ structural strength; the forces involved are too large. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985/28 "2014-07-01T08:37:15Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Any other way? > > And if we stopped spinning in such a dark universe, would the coriolis effect stop? > > I’m assuming that we need big storms to see it, as the coriolis effect supposedly is too weak to actually affect bathtubs and sinks. Yes, Coriolis arises only as an artefact of the planet’s rotation. Without it, air masses would flow North and South, not northeast/southwest. I imagine circular storms would still have to spin one way or the other, just as bathtubs and sinks do (they are _far_ too small to be meaningfully affected by either the Coriolis force or the tide). ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985/29 "2014-07-01T11:53:38Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > The recovery process would take thousands of years. Much of the northern hemisphere is still recovering from the weight of the last ice age … The change in force due to no rotation would be very much larger than that due to the loss of a thousand feet of ice. So at least the initial change in shape would be much more rapid. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985/30 "2014-07-01T12:36:57Z")
> [@sbunny8](#): > > Yes, we would still be spinning and we could tell by the Coriolis effect. That is a matter of debate. If [Mach’s Principle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach%27s_principle) is true, then which frames are inertial or not is determined by the overall distribution of matter in the universe. If everything but the Earth disappeared, then the overall distribution of matter in the universe would just be “the Earth”, the metric tensor would adjust so that the Earth is non-rotating, and you wouldn’t feel any Coriolis effect. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985/31 "2014-07-02T01:05:49Z")
Assuming that Mach’s principle is incorrect, though, you could also tell by a Focault pendulum, such as are found in nearly every science museum in the country. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985/32 "2014-07-02T02:47:10Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > The recovery process would take thousands of years. Much of the northern hemisphere is still recovering from the weight of the last ice age, and that ended ten thousand years ago or so. Question eburacum45. How is the northern hemisphere “recovering”? I’ve never heard of this. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985/33 "2014-07-02T02:50:45Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > Question eburacum45. How is the northern hemisphere “recovering”? I’ve never heard of this. I believe what he’s referring to is the land surface rising, due to not being weighed down by an enormous blanket of ice - right? Of course, “enormous” is a relative term when compared to the mass of the globe, but pretty enormous in human terms. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-glacial\_rebound](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-glacial_rebound) ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985/34 "2014-07-02T03:12:10Z")
That’s right. Note the illustration that shows how the material in the mantle has moved from surrounding regions into the rebounding area; [![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-glacial_rebound#mediaviewer/File:PGR_Paulson2007_Rate_of_Lithospheric_Uplift_due_to_PGR.png) ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-glacial_rebound#mediaviewer/File:PGR_Paulson2007_Rate_of_Lithospheric_Uplift_due_to_PGR.png) if the Earth were to stop spinning, this would happen on a massive scale, as the equator falls and the rest of the world rises. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985/35 "2014-07-02T19:45:12Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > That’s right. Note the illustration that shows how the material in the mantle has moved from surrounding regions into the rebounding area; > > [Post-glacial rebound - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-glacial_rebound#mediaviewer/File:PGR_Paulson2007_Rate_of_Lithospheric_Uplift_due_to_PGR.png) > > if the Earth were to stop spinning, this would happen on a massive scale, as the equator falls and the rest of the world rises. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985/36 "2014-07-02T20:00:50Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > I’d spend the end with you > And when the world was through > Then one by one the stars would all go out > Then you and I would simply fly away Ashes where the bodies burning No more war pigs have the power Hand of God has struck the hour [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-stopped-spinning/691985.md?page=1)