this has been bothering me for a while now.. okay, here's mr plane flying merrily. the question is, will he go around the world faster going westwards than he will going eastwards because of the rotation of the earth?
i've been looking for the answers everywhere on the internet but i've found only one so far... and it contradicted ali's answer. he said that the time taken will still be the same due to the earth's gravity, making the rotation of the earth, negligible. i'm not quite sure how to explain it but i think he meant that mr plane's weight is acting with the rotation of the earth OR it's weight is just slowing it down.
the contradicting answer i found was on answer.yahoo.com:The one going east will go faster for most of the ride (has the wind behind it), and with the rotation of the earth it will arrive faster, as the earth rotates east to west. One last thing, it also depends on the altitude reached and weather conditions.
note: i don't think the guy is a physicist or anything.
any physicist out there that can quench my curiosity will be much appreciated.
3 comments:
Gravity is the pull towards the earth yes? I think it has something to do with the centripetal force and angular momentum. you see, when you go around a curve in your car, you HAVE to slow down. Do you know why?
Well, the car is exerting a centripetal force towards the center of an "invisible" circle that the car is going around. Your car's velocity is actually perpendicular to the centripetal force, its connected through the equation. So if you go faster, you'll break the circle and therefore plunge to your death. I think your airplane thingy is similar.
If you want me to email you a PROPER explanation with proper diagrams, I'd be glad to. Or you can look up, centripetal force and angular momentums in google :P Look for the velocity and acceleration as well yea?
At least I think i know im making sense :P
Miss you bugger. *hugs*
so i asked my lecturere this question :P hahaha. sanggup. anyways.
We on the ground are moving about 1400km/h with space. You can't feel it, but you are. The thing is when the airplane is in SPACE itself, it moves 1400km/h as well. So if it moves in the same direction as the spin of the earth (east), it'll move faster, whereas if it were to move west, it would move slower.
But if the airplane was on the ground (meaning nowhere near earth but in the clear blue sky), it has no relevance to how fast it would go nomatter what the direction. So in conclusion, it doesn't matter. It only matters when you're in space.
:) haha. happy?
mashes: you're an angel, you know that? a very geeky angel - but an angel nonetheless. hehe. thanks a lot babe. ':)
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