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The inertia of the earth is just what you think it is. Anything moving wants to keep moving. (Just like anything at rest wants to remain at rest.) The earth is spinning on its axis. (And it isn't perfectly round.) It has that kind of inertia. It is moving through space in orbit about the sun, and has an inertial moment associated with that. The sun is moving, and that imparts another inertial component to the earth. And the Milky Way Galaxy is moving carrying the earth with it. More inertia. There are also a couple of other little weird types of inertia that should be looked at to find a total inertial moment for the earth, if one is so inclined. They have to do with slight changes in the "direction" the axis of rotation points. Good luck working something out with them. Oh, and almost forgot. There's this matter of liquid water sloshing around on the earth, too. That'll really increase the difficulty of your calculations. Plus, the earth isn't a "solid" sphere, liquid water aside. Bummer. Sorry if I ruined your day, but you did ask. In concluding, the inertia of the earth is the vector sum of, or, if you prefer, something like the "cumulative effect" of all the various motions associated with this big ball of spinning, wobbling, rotating, drifting and shape-changing material on which we live. Links are provided below to get you started. Good luck.

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17y ago

What else can I help you with?