# Why do things spin?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-spin/204140>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 27, 2003, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-spin/204140 "2003-09-27T08:51:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-spin/204140/21 "2003-09-29T15:44:21Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by eburacum45 \*  
> \*\*unique things \*\*

That’s why I stated **unique things**. If there are **2000 billion billion stars in the visible universe; all spinning** that’s ONE thing, namely spinning stars. See what I meant now? 🙂

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**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:** [September 29, 2003, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-spin/204140/22 "2003-09-29T17:44:15Z")

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OK, so for manufactured things, if you want to be really generous, you could count spinning wheels, spinning gears, spinning pulleys, spinning propellors, and maybe spinning toys. So five manufactured things. Whereas for natural things, we’ve got spinning particles, spinning flagella, spinning sead pods, spinning Tasmanian devils (OK, maybe not), spinning storms, spinning planets, spinning stars, spinning star clusters, spinning galaxies, and spinning galaxies, at least, for nine things. Of course, I could have counted the different particles separately, and separated cyclones and tornadoes instead of “storms”, and had categories for “moons” and “asteroids” separate from “planets”, and so on, but that didn’t quite seem fair, since you’re lumping all stars together.

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**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-spin/204140/23 "2003-09-29T22:08:06Z")

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I can see this can go on forever. If we’re going to make **spinning planets, spinning stars, spinning star clusters, spinning galaxies** all unique, then I think we have to say spinning gears in a car transmission and spinning gears in a clock are unique. 🙂

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-spin/204140/24 "2003-09-29T22:47:59Z")

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Well… a star is quite different in structure and composition from a planet, cluster or galaxy, but a gear in a car is really only different from that of a clock in _scale_ - in any case, once you start grouping different things, the whole question becomes rather arbitrary.

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**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-things-spin/204140/25 "2003-09-29T22:51:31Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mangetout \*  
> \*\*Well… a star is quite different in structure and composition from a planet, cluster or galaxy, but a gear in a car is really only different from that of a clock in _scale_ - in any case, once you start grouping different things, the whole question becomes rather arbitrary. \*\*

Agreed. Then it becomes - where do you draw the line on the groups? But anywho, I just woke up the other day and wondered why so many things spin. Strange but true.

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