97. We would be able to feel a spherical Earth rotating and moving through space

"NASA and modern astronomy say the Earth is a giant ball tilted back, wobbling and spinning 1,000 mph around its central axis, traveling 67,000 mph circles around the Sun, spiraling 500,000 mph around the Milky Way, while the entire galaxy rockets a ridiculous 670,000,000 mph through the Universe, with all of these motions originating from an alleged “Big Bang” cosmogenic explosion 14 billion years ago. That’s a grand total of 670,568,000 mph in several different directions we’re all supposedly speeding along at simultaneously, yet no one has ever seen, felt, heard, measured or proven a single one of these motions to exist whatsoever."



Dubay does not understand the laws of motion .... as demonstrated by his adding up all those different velocities as if it means something!

Speed does not exert a force on our bodies, only acceleration.  If we are stationary, travelling a  constant 55 miles per hour in a car on the motorway, at 200mph on the Japanese bullet train, or thousands of miles per hour through space, the speed exerts exactly zero force on us.  If there is no force acting on us there is nothing to feel.

We do feel acceleration.  When you put your foot on the accelerator of your car and the car accelerates from zero to 55 miles per hour, or when the bullet train pulls away from a station and builds up to its maximum speed, that exerts a force on our bodies which we feel.
Below is a video of the Shanghai Maglev train which accelerates relatively slowly but reaches a top speed of 268 miles per hour.  Note the that the passengers are sitting as comfortably at high speed as they were at slow speed.
By way of contrast the video below shows the effect of high acceleration and a relatively low top speed.
This neatly demonstrates that the passengers experience acceleration rather than speed.

The Earth is not increasing or decreasing in speed as it moves through space.  It is travelling at a constant speed, so of course we feel nothing and hear nothing relating to this motion.

Vibration:

When you travel fast in a car you can feel vibration.  So isn’t that “feeling speed”.  No it is not.  You are feeling acceleration as the car accelerates back and forth.  I.e.  Up and down and side to side because of the tyres bumping against the road and the air resistance buffeting the vehicle.
As the earth travels through space there is no road for it to bump along and no atmosphere through which it has to travel that would create resistance, so there is no vibration for us to feel.

Centrifugal force:

On a merry-go-round I can feel the motion even if it is turning at a constant speed.  This is true, because as the merry-go-round you have to hang on to the roundabout to stop yourself carrying on in the same direction and being flung off.  You feel a centrifugal force and need to exert an opposite and equal force on the handrails to stay on the roundabout.

On Earth gravity is the force that counteracts the centrifugal force to keep us from being flung off the earth.  If it was just equal to the centrifugal force we would feel weightless, but would not fly off.  However the force of gravity is far greater, and we do experience this force as our own weight.

Dizzyness:

On a merry-go-round travelling at a constant rotational speed with your eyes closed you will not feel dizzy.  However if you jump off the merry-go-round and stop spinning dizziness will occur because the mechanisms in your inner ear is giving your body signals about its motion that disagrees with your other senses.  (See the link below for an explanation of the inner ear mechanisms) Obviously we are not “getting off the Earth” so this effect isn’t something we would ever feel because of the Earths spin.



However, if you keep your eyes open while on the merry-go-round you might also feel disoriented because again your inner ear is telling you that you are being accelerated because of the centrifugal force and this disagrees with what your eyes are seeing.  On a spinning earth there is no such mismatch.  As explained above, the centrifugal force simply reduces the pull of gravity an imperceptible amount so we experience nothing in an unexpected direction that would disorient us.

Coriolis effect:

There is some merit in the idea that we should be able to detect the Coriolis effect on a rotating Earth.  Apparently we can sense the Coriolis effect if we are in motion on a very rapidly rotating object, but rather conveniently the angular velocity of the Earth is below our threshold to detect.

For those of us who believe in evolution this convenient fact is inevitable, after all it would be detrimental to our survival if we constantly felt unbalanced or nauseous all the time.  However for flat earther’s who probably reject evolution they might take this as evidence that the Coriolis effect does not exist and consequently that the Earth is not rotating.

However, there is plenty of evidence that the Coriolis effect does exist even if it can’t be observed day to day by our own senses.

Hurricanes

Hurricanes in the norther hemisphere rotate anti-clockwise and in the southern hemisphere rotate clockwise.  See the links below for an explanation of why the directions are as they are, but the key fact is that the direction differs in the two hemispheres.


Ocean currents

There are also ocean currents that are affected by the Coriolis effect.  Curiously these rotate in the opposite direction to hurricanes.  Clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anti-clockwise in the southern hemisphere.  See the link below for an explanation of why that is, but the key fact is that they rotate in opposite directions in the different hemispheres.


https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/ocean-gyre/

Foucault's pendulum

You can do your own experiment with a Foucault's pendulum.  This is a pendulum anchored by a ball bearing which has an extra-large pendulum mass and a super long string so it can swing slowly and withstand the effects of air resistance. Since the pendulum doesn't have outside forces influencing its movement, the only thing acting on it is the rotation of the Earth beneath it. As it swings, the Coriolis effect makes the pendulum veer off to the side and slowly change its swinging plane. After about 24 hours of painful waiting, you'll see that it has made one full rotation.


Ballistics

The Coriolis effect can affect the trajectory of very fast long-range projectiles like missiles and speeding bullets. E.g. During World War I, the Germans had to compensate for the Earth's movement as they fired shells at Paris with an extremely heavy howitzer that they called Big Bertha. If they hadn't taken the Coriolis effect into account, their shells, which were fired from 70 miles (112.6 km) away, would have gone astray by nearly a mile (1.6 km)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Gun
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_force
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E%C3%B6tv%C3%B6s_effect

Unfortunately a lot of well meaning explanations of the Coriolis effect  on YouTube get it wrong.  I actually could not find a single video that got it all right!

This link explains what the effects are but without explanation: https://loadoutroom.com/thearmsguide/external-ballistics-the-coriolis-effect-6-theory-section/

This demonstrates horizontal and vertical Coriolis effects when shooting East/West, but is misleading when talking about North/South

This link explains horizontal effect shooting North/South, but skips over shooting East/West, and actually gets the reason for the vertical Coriolis effect wrong.

This link is about hurricane rotation, but it uses snipers/bullets to explain how horizontal Coriolis effect works.


< Prev    91-100   Next >

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

127. Straight reflections of sunlight and moonlight are impossible on a spherical Earth

Debunking Eric Dubay's 200 proofs the earth is not a spinning ball

1. The horizon always appears flat