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Old 14-June-2005, 04:18 AM
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Default What are the Likely Senarios to make the sun rise from west?

[1] What are the Likely Senarios to make the sun rise from west?

What I mean is that, the sun currently rises from the east, what does it take to make the sun rise from the west.
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Old 14-June-2005, 04:21 AM
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It would require the Earth to spin in the other direction. Which is mind-bogglingly improbable.
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Old 14-June-2005, 04:27 AM
Omicron Persei 8 Omicron Persei 8 is offline
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Are you afraid you're going to die via opposite rotational motion username?

Have no fear. The Earth won't be going in the wrong direction. However, I don't know your directional skills. If they're as bad as mine you've gone in the wrong direction many times!
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Old 14-June-2005, 04:45 AM
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With a triple inversion layer once here in oregon, we saw the sun rising in the east, and a miarge of it rising in the west!

freakiest thing I ever saw.
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Old 14-June-2005, 04:45 AM
DoktorGreg DoktorGreg is offline
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Back to an earlier earth rotation thread....

Start again with wrapping a copper coil around the earth several hundred times. But this time instead of just discharging the electic current, we also make the oceans into a giant battery, and charge the oceans. Then once the rotational energy of the earth has been converted into current and dumped into the oceans (sorry sharks) we reverse the polarity if the thing and discharge the planetary ocean batteries into the coil. Voila, the earth starts to rotate backwards.

If we start now, we can be done in 500-600 years.
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Old 14-June-2005, 05:05 AM
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Default Re: What are the Likely Senarios to make the sun rise from w

Quote:
Originally Posted by username24
[1] What are the Likely Senarios to make the sun rise from west?

What I mean is that, the sun currently rises from the east, what does it take to make the sun rise from the west.
nothing. there are no likely scenarios for that to happen. however, in the unlikely scenario that is is to happen, there will be no one and nothing left alive to witness it.
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Old 14-June-2005, 05:06 AM
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Get in a high-speed jet and fly west very quickly just after sunset. If you can go faster than the Earth rotates, then the Sun will rise. This is easier at higher latitudes.

Also, if you watch a sunset in a very flat place (like on a western beach), squat down. Just as the Sun vanishes from view, leap up quickly. Your added height might be enough to allow you to see the Sun appear again for a moment, then set for a second time. I did this in Florida some years back, and it worked. Amazing.
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Old 14-June-2005, 05:07 AM
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Quote:
however, in the unlikely scenario that is is to happen, there will be no one and nothing left alive to witness it.
It's true. The only way I can see the Earth starting to spin in the other direction is a truly massive impact by a planetary body. And at that point, nothing is left. Depending on the size of the impact, we might even break apart.

Edit:

The BA posted before I could. And I have to say that his ideas are much more clever than my brute force method. #-o
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Old 14-June-2005, 05:14 AM
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We could simply rename east as west and west as east.
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Old 14-June-2005, 05:20 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jpax2003
We could simply rename east as west and west as east.
What a beautiful, elegant solution. Nobody has to die, nobody even has to jump. It might be a bit of trouble for cartographers and compas makers, though. We could actually change the labels for north and south as well, and thereby eliminate the slight against Australians and other folks for having to live on the underside of the earth.
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Old 14-June-2005, 05:49 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Bad Astronomer
Get in a high-speed jet and fly west very quickly just after sunset. If you can go faster than the Earth rotates, then the Sun will rise. This is easier at higher latitudes.
no fair, BA: since they stopped flying Concord it's not possible for simple mortals like ourselves to see that.

Jpax: =D>
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Old 14-June-2005, 07:12 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jpax2003
We could simply rename east as west and west as east.
So simple- I love it!
=D> =D>
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Old 14-June-2005, 08:00 AM
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Gentlemen and Ladies,

Let’s answer my above question scientifically, in reality what does it take to make earth stop or go visa versa.

If there was a planet many times larger than earth and going between sun and earth but the opposition direction, could it really stop earth for 1 or 2 or 3 or 5 days or even make earth spinning the other way?
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Old 14-June-2005, 08:16 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by username24
Gentlemen and Ladies,

Let’s answer my above question scientifically, in reality what does it take to make earth stop or go visa versa.

If there was a planet many times larger than earth and going between sun and earth but the opposition direction, could it really stop earth for 1 or 2 or 3 or 5 days or even make earth spinning the other way?
Look, one thing you need to understand is that planetary bodies are not like cars, where you can put on brakes and then start the engine and stuff like that. They don't "stop" for several days and then start "going" again. They are big masses that are floating in space. They keep going in one direction unless something puts a force on them to change direction. For example, the earth keeps going around the sun because gravity pulls the earth toward the sun. Otherwise the earth would simply keep going in a straight line out somewhere.

So to answer your question, if a big planet passed in between the earth and the sun, there's no guarantee that it would do anything at all. Venus isn't that big, but it does spend all of its time between the sun and the earth, and although I'm sure it has some effect on the earth, it's not a big effect. So, if a big planet passed between the earth and the sun, and passed close enough to the earth, it would certainly disturb the earth's orbit, but it would not "stop" it. Maybe an easy way to imagine this is if I throw a ball into the air and you throw another ball that hits mine. Certainly it will change direction, but neither will "stop." They'll still travel somehow, eventually downward, right?

If the object comes very close to the earth, then something more dramatic would happen. The part of the earth close to it would be pulled more than the part of the earth far away from it, so the earth would be ripped apart.

Now, before you get too concerned about this, remember that the solar system itself is very big, and the planets themselves take up a very, very, very small part of it. In addition, if a big planet were really coming our way, we would see it coming. It:s possible to miss a small asteroid, because the don't stand out that much, but consider Venus, for example, which is smaller than the earth and is quite far away. It is still the third brightest object in the sky, I think. So if a planet were five times as big as the earth, it would be quite bright before it got all that close. It would also influence the orbits of other planets, so we would know it was coming.
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Old 14-June-2005, 08:40 AM
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Huh... username24 seems to have quite the fixation on halted and reversed orbits or rotations.

Couldn't all (well, most) of these questions have been asked in a single thread?
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Old 14-June-2005, 08:46 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cl1mh4224rd
Huh... username24 seems to have quite the fixation on halted and reversed orbits or rotations.

Couldn't all (well, most) of these questions have been asked in a single thread?
This has already been discussed in This thread. I'm not sure what his motives are, but he doesn't seem to be answering any of the replys.

with regards
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Old 14-June-2005, 08:54 AM
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username24: you really should consider the sizes and masses involved. i'm no expert on this subject (but there are many here who are), but like Jens already pointed out: there is no way for a body as massive as a planet to simply stop spinning and then restart. it's not a golf ball. the forces involved and the different densities out of which -for instance- Earth is built up would result in massive forces that would simply rip the planet apart.
let's assume for one moment that some force working on the outside of the planet would slow down the rotation. my guess is that those parts of the earth that are heavier (or of a different composition) than the crust would take longer to slow down and the resulting friction would cause the crust to rupture and tear apart. since life as we know it all takes place on or inside the outer layer of Earth, this would result in all life being crushed.

of course, it would be all downhill from there.

i can't imagine any force being able to stop rotation of a planet in any humanly conceivable time span with the structural integrity of that planet remaining intact. so has Mars stopped rotating? not likely. pieces of it would be all over the place.
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Old 14-June-2005, 09:14 AM
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How about this,

what does it take to topple the earth while spining and rottating in the current direction?
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Old 14-June-2005, 09:20 AM
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Alot of energy
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Old 14-June-2005, 09:39 AM
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Quote:
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How about this,

what does it take to topple the earth while spining and rottating in the current direction?
how would earth 'topple'? it is not an egg spinning on a plate. it is a ball floating in space, where there is no up or down. where would it topple to?
there is a continuous strong force exerted on earth by the sun, yet earth doesn't 'topple' towards it. the amount of energy required to create a force to turn earth upside down is inconceivably large, IMO.
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