yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Why Does The Earth Spin?


2m read
·Nov 10, 2024

So, I'm down in West Vancouver, British Columbia, which is where I grew up. At the local beach, there is this 2 and 1/2 ton granite sphere that was made to have a tolerance of 200s of a millimeter. This is an amazing granite sphere, and it’s floated on a thin layer of water. It just presents an amazing opportunity to study inertia.

That's why I'm down here, to have a chat with some of the people going by about why the globe spins. In fact, why does the Earth spin? Why does it turn like that? I think it's the gravity that keeps us down on the ground, is that right? Gravitational pull—how does that cause the Earth to spin? Again, my basic science fails; it fails gravity.

He, he, he guesses, you know, looking at gravity. Yeah, gravity. It's not stopping! Would you agree with me? Yeah. So why is that? Some sort of force? Do you think there's a force down there pushing it? Yeah, I'm going to go because the upthrust from the water is probably angled in such a way that it's because it's a spherical shape. It's probably pushing on it at an angle so it spins constantly.

Yes. What is the centrifugal force that keeps it going? What is that force? Where does that force come from? Is there a force that keeps it going? Is there a force pushing it around within the Earth's core? Is there not something that drives and dictates said centrifugal force?

Guess it's the law of inertia, isn't it? What's the law of inertia? Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The force of inertia maintains this, but inertia, which is a great idea, is not a force. How would you define it? It's just the tendency of all objects with mass to maintain their state of motion.

Okay, so if they stay still, they want to stay stationary—if we anthropomorphize them, yes. And if they're moving, said anthropomorphized objects want to keep moving. Basically, whatever motion they have, they like to continue in that state of motion. The Earth does that without any forces. This does that without any forces. Yes.

More Articles

View All
Enumerated and implied powers of the US federal government | Khan Academy
In this video, we’re going to focus on enumerated powers versus implied powers for the federal government. Enumerated just means powers that have been made explicit, that are clear, that have been enumerated, that have been listed someplace. While implied…
15 Ways to Hack Your Brain to Break Bad Habits
How many times have you tried to break a bad habit? 90% of people fail when they first start trying to break their bad habits, and it’s because they’re trying to break it in all the wrong ways. Habits are hardwired into your brain, and they have to be bec…
Packet, routers, and reliability | Internet 101 | Computer Science | Khan Academy
Hi, my name is Lynn Root. I am a software engineer here at Spotify, and I’ll be the first to admit that I often take for granted the reliability of the internet. The sheer amount of information zooming around the internet is astonishing. How is it possibl…
4 Ways to CURE Social Media Addiction and GET WORK DONE
Hey, it’s Joey, and welcome to Better Ideas. Now, a lot of people in this highly digital, social media-driven society are finding it increasingly difficult to get work done without getting distracted by social media. I’ve experienced the same problem, whe…
Thermal energy, temperature, and heat | Khan Academy
I have two vessels of water. I start heating them with pretty much the same amount of heat; they are similar. What do we find? We find that the one which has less water starts boiling first. That’s not very surprising. This means that the one which has le…
Bobby Bones Descends a Slippery Cliff | Running Wild With Bear Grylls
[Wind rumbling] OK, so Bobby, where we’re heading is a 100 foot drop off that lip. We’re right on the edge of this, like, boulder, slab of rock that just curls away. And it’s one of these awkward ones because you can’t see over the lip. We’re going to go …