What if the world stood still? Opinions?

What if, gradually, the earth stopped spinning. What would life be like? What would the world be like geographically? Any thoughts or opinions?

I'm considering writing a story including this. The thought has been lingering in my head for a while.

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@desperateforchange Believe it or not, the earth rotates at a few hundred miles per hour. If it were to stop, we would suddenly feel the inertia (look at Newton's Laws), and anything not attached to the surface would likely be wiped clean. That wouldn't be fun, wouldn't it? :D

I guess you could survive it somehow, but it not moving would definately affect the seasons and tides.

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@MisterSuz But what if it happened gradually? It's highly unlikely that the earth will just suddenly stop spinning, even more so than for the earth to slowly stop spinning. Anyway, thanks for replying :)

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Well, we'd all freaking die, of course. Think about it.

Earth rotates at a speed of, like,1100 miles per hour. If our planet suddenly stopped rotating, the atmosphere would still be in motion at that speed. The atmosphere would be moving so fast it would literally sweep the land masses clear of anything not anchored to bedrock, rocks, trees, buildings, people... Then, think of the oceans, lakes, rivers, streams, etc. It would cause one HUGE tsunami. (71% of the earth is water so... yeah O_O) Think about people DRIVING at that time! Millions and millions of simultaneous car crashes at 1100 miles per hour would occur.

Yeah, it would suck like crap if the world just stopped

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Oops, you said gradually... forget my comment. Heh heh ^_^'

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@darkarchangelgirl Haha, it's okay :) Thanks either way :) :D

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No problem :3 @desperateforchange

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@desperateforchange You're speaking of a tidally-locked Earth here. The side of Earth locked to the sun will warm up and change into a desert, the other side will change into a large ice cap. The zone between this will be habitable.

@darkarchangelgirl Really? You think that would happen if the Earth would be tidally-locked?

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@TheLocalGuerilla True :D Thanks for replying.

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@desperateforchange aside from all these nice things in the comments, we would probably be taken in the sun, see this video for explanation, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhS8K4gFu4s&list=PLED25F943F8D6081C&index=4&feature=plcp&noredirect=1

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@TheLocalGuerilla I think that wouldn't happen, air moves around the earth, different pressure forces the gas to move around, making it really windy and stormy, but the hot air melts ice on its way, and cold air cools down whatever it reaches before it's heated and is forced to go back. This might work as a story plotline for you @desperateforchange , it would be something of a tornado ruled earth, where people have to stay moving to survive, that would be nice :D

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@MotazAbumathkour True, but air ain't propelled by the Earth itself.

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@desperateforchange - always worth Googling... this might be of interest to you

http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0610/nospin.html

I think with this though you have to demonstrate a valid theory as to how the earth would slow down and stop spinning. I'm not sure it could in current condition.

Newton's first law of motion states that any body will continue in its state of motion (still or travelling) until outside forces change it. So, something will have to happen to the current state of affairs to do that. Until you can come up with a valid reason for that I'm not sure you can write the story without knowing the history to your own imagined universe. Merely stating that it happened probably won't be good enough for many SF readers...

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@desperateforchange - you could however do the story with a made up world. Authors like Larry Niven and Arthur C Clarke have long posited the idea of habitable worlds that revolve around the sun but don't spin themselves (a bit like our own moon about the Earth). This would give a habitable 'strip' around the rim of the planet with a burning hot unhabitable side facing the sun and a cold and barren side facing the stars.

This would ultimately be the end result of your original scenario.

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@TheLocalGuerilla true, but the huge difference in temperature yields a huge difference in pressure :D

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