'Ere, where's the elephant then?

[zeitghost]

Saudi cleric confidently tells academic that the Earth does NOT rotate | World | News | Daily Express

For dear old Freako, this is a genius who reckons that the earth is stationary & the heavens revolve about it.

[Bunk]

Saudi cleric confidently tells academic that the Earth does NOT rotate | World | News | Daily Express

For dear old Freako, this is a genius who reckons that the earth is stationary & the heavens revolve about it.

I'm on a train so haven't read that particular article but does it mention that his proof is basically a variation of the old chestnut about "if you jump in the air, why doesn't the earth revolve under you and you land in a different place?"

[VectraMan]

I'm on a train so haven't read that particular article but does it mention that his proof is basically a variation of the old chestnut about "if you jump in the air, why doesn't the earth revolve under you and you land in a different place?"

If you jump in the air, why doesn't the earth revolve under you and you land in a different place?

[FatLazyContractor]

The ramblings of lunes.

Talking of which, anyone spotted AtW recently?!!

[BolshieBastard]

In the next lesson, the world is flat not round.

[FatLazyContractor]

If you don't believe him, you are a non-believer and you will be ....

[vetran]

Seems the yanks really have bombed them back to the middle ages!

Poor old Copernicus.

[NotAllThere]

If you jump in the air, why doesn't the earth revolve under you and you land in a different place?

Because it's rotating very very slowly. However, that makes the circumference of the world about 100m. But I'm sure we can cope with that.

Can anyone explain exactly why we know the Earth is rotating. I know it makes the maths a lot easier to assume it is, but how does relativity work in accelerating (rotating) frames?

Edit: conservation of angular momentum - Sagnac effect. It moves!

[DaveB]

Because it's rotating very very slowly. However, that makes the circumference of the world about 100m. But I'm sure we can cope with that.

Can anyone explain exactly why we know the Earth is rotating. I know it makes the maths a lot easier to assume it is, but how does relativity work in accelerating (rotating) frames?

Edit: conservation of angular momentum - Sagnac effect. It moves!

Early physicists ( or the equivalent ) identified a number of phenomenon that confirmed the rotation of the earth. Newton predicted that the rotation would cause an equatorial bulge and this was confirmed by physical measurement in the 18th Century.

Foucalts Pendulum is the classic practical experiment to demonstrate the earth is rotating.

You can see the effects of rotation in the Coriolis effect that means a projectile will veer to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern relative to the point it was aimed at. This is something taken into account when plotting targets for long range gunnery such as sniper fire, naval gunfire and artillery fire.

[JRCT]

If you jump in the air, why doesn't the earth revolve under you and you land in a different place?

Instead of flying thousands of miles to Australia, burning shed loads of fuel, I don't know why British Airways don't just fly straight up, I think space is about 50 miles away. Hang around in neutral for 12 hours until the Earth spins round, maybe hold a disco on board for the passengers then fly straight back down again.