Why aren't people dizzy from the earth spinning around?

Answer 1

The answer to this may come from a science concept called a "frame of reference" in our physics class. The best examples are people riding in vehicles. We don't notice that we're sailing along at freeway speeds because our frame of reference is the car. We're moving at the same speed it is. The earth is rotating, but so is everything else on the surface - including us. We don't notice it because everything around us is moving at the same speed. We are all in the same frame of reference.

Actually we do. We can feel any acceleration that applied to us - consider being a passenger in a car that is performing a tight circular path. The outward thrust you feel is acceleration (or a lack of it if your a real physical purist).

On earth you feel both an acceleration due to gravity and an acceleration due to the rotation of the earth. (These two forces oppose each other with gravity being the winner) You don't consider yourself feeling either because their effect is constant and you're 'use to it'. If there is any variation in either of these then you definitely feel them - consider what happens on a roller coaster.

Answer 2

Relativity. If we are able to observe some object in the outer space which is visibly bigger than the Earth, not like Sun (which due to the distance looks smaller), then we can feel the rotation and revolution. Right now Sun looks likes revolving around Earth because it appears smaller than the Earth. Also we are born into this world so we dont feel the motion due to Inertia. If the Earth speed changes then again we would feel the motion.

Answer 3

Very important fact, that comes up in hundreds of situations . . . . . We never feel motion.

We only feel changes in motion.

Example: You can read or sleep very well in a car going 70 miles an hour, as long as the

car doesn't speed up, slow down, turn, or hit a rough spot. And have you ever been on

an airliner, cruising along at 400 miles an hour and reading a book or taking a nap ?

It makes no difference whether you're moving fast or slow, horizontally or vertically.

You feel nothing until either the speed or the direction changes.

On the spinning earth, you're moving almost 1,040 miles an hour at the equator, or

730 miles an hour at the latitude of Chicago. You don't feel the speed in the direction

east along the ground, because it never changes. You do feel the force it takes to

keep you moving in a circle at that speed ... the force you call your "weight".

Answer 4

One reason is because we are moving at the same speed along with the earth. If you have ever watched a sunset, you can get a feel for the rotation of the earth, provided you can convince yourself it is the earth turning away from the sun and not the sun 'going down'. On the other hand, if the earth were ever to instantly stop spinning, the effect would kill all or nearly all humans on the planet. Fortunately, this is not likely to happen.

Answer 5

Because you're spinning with it, and so is everything else on Earth. Since you're all moving together, and we're not CHANGING the way we're all moving, we do not NOTICE the motion. We can only notice changes in motion.

Go to a big amusement park, and ride a LARGE carousel. You definitely notice it when you get on, or when the carousel starts, and you DEFINITELY notice it when you step off or when the carousel stops. But if you close your eyes mid-ride, you probably won't "feel" the carousel spinning, because you're spinning along with it.

Comments: I don't think that's totally correct.

Rotation involves changes of direction so, scientifically, it's an acceleration, even if the speed is constant.

You could feel yourself being "thrown off" a small carousel that was rotating

quickly (the centrifugal effect).

I think the main reason we don't sense the spin of the Earth is that the centrifugal effect is small in comparison with the Earth's gravity, holding us in place.

Answer 6

it's physically impossible to feel the earth spinning. It happens too slowly.

You can use something like a Foucault Pendulum to see evidence that the Earth

is turning, but you have to watch it for a while (or use a huge one and make

careful observations) in order to see the effect.

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Another way to look at it ... see if this does anything for you:

-- You never feel motion, as long as it's in a straight line at a steady speed.

You only feel changes in the speed or direction of motion. (You have no trouble

sleeping in a car at 75 mph or an airliner at 350 mph, as long as the ride isn't

bumpy.)

-- On the Earth, your speed of rotation is constant. So if you're going to feel

anything, it has to be the change in direction that keeps you moving around

in a circle, following the curved surface of the Earth.

-- To sum it up: You're riding on the curved Earth. Between any two places

during the spin, you don't move in a straight line, you move along a piece of

a circle. The middle of the piece of the circle is where it's farthest away from

the straight line between the two points. You curve out to that point on the

circle and then back in again to the straight line.

How curved is that path ? If the calculations I just now scribbled on a sheet

of soggy paper towel are correct, then in the time it takes you to rotate by

2 miles on the spinning Earth, the distance you curve out on the circle and

back in again is a couple of feet.

Since your direction is changing so slightly, your senses can't tell the difference

from straight-line motion, so you don't feel any effect of the spin.

Answer 7

___________ I think that in a way it is possible. If you could be the weight or 'mass' at the end of a very large pendulum (not a double-roped swing, but a true pendulum) and the pendulum were set in motion, and if you were patient enough to stay with it for a while, you would at least observe if not feel the effect of earth's rotation. There may a slight kinesthetic sensing of the pendulum effect.

Answer 8

Answer: The Earth is very big, and it's been spinning for a very long time.

Answer: To get dizzy, you would have to rotate at several rpm (revolutions per minute). The Earth rotates at about 1/1440 rpm - way too little to get dizzy.

Answer 9

You don't feel ANY motion until it changes !

Think about it ... in an airplane, when you're having a drink or taking a nap, do you feel

like you're streaking over the ground at 500 or 600 miles per hour ?

Even in a car, cruising along on the Interstate ... at speeds faster than any human being

ever moved until less than a hundred years ago ... it's easy to read a magazine, or drift off

until it's your turn to drive.

You're not only rotating with the earth. You're also riding the earth on a 1-year path

around the sun. At the same time, the sun is riding a million-year path around the

center of the Milky Way galaxy, dragging the earth and all of us along with it. And we

don't feel a thing.

What you do feel is the forces that push or pull on you to change the speed or the

direction of your motion ... the pressure of the car seat on your back when you speed up,

and the pressure of the seat belt on your front when you slow down. If the speed or

direction aren't changing, there are no forces on you, and you don't feel anything.

Here's the punchline: You DO feel an effect of the earth's rotation. Not forward or

backward, because your speed doesn't change; it's always (once around) per (24 hours).

But the direction keeps changing, in order to keep the motion in a circle, so that you

stay on the earth's surface and don't go flying off. The force that keeps bending your

motion into a circle is directed down toward the center of the earth. That's very familiar

to you. It's the force you call your "weight".

Answer 10

You never feel motion. You only feel changes in motion ... either speed or direction.

For example, you're perfectly comfortable dozing off in an airliner seat that's moving

through the air at 500 miles per hour.

On the rotating Earth, your speed is essentially not changing at all, and your direction

is only bending about 1/4 degree per minute ... too slow a change to feel.