posted on Jul, 31 2006 @ 01:16 PM
Yes, the earth's spin will slow and slow and eventually stop. By the same token, the sun will one day burn out, destroying the earth during a
turbulent period where its very surface will scorch our world. By the same token, the moon will eventually fly away or crash into the earth. Black
holes will some day evaporate...
Entropy consumes all.
In time.
Essentially what I'm saying is that the rate the earth's spin is slowing, we have nothing to fear. It will take countless eons for it to slow down
by any noticeable degree. Why the dinosaurs themselves probably experienced a day that was still ever so slightly longer than 24 hours like our own.
The earth's been spinning, pretty uniformly, for the past 5 billion years, and will most certainly change by only the smallest fraction of amount
during the next 5 billion years.
And yes - we could use the earth as a great spaceship! If you could create a heating system and an energy supply to keep us warm and power it across
the cosmos, you very well could keep an entire planet alive whilst using it as a vessel for travel.
As for spin and time... the two are loosely related - but only in the fact that the outer surface of a spinning object moves at a faster speed than
the center. Anything moving encounters time/space dialation (as according to relativity), even you, and so the outside edge of a rapidly rotating
object will be as if time is moving more slowly than something at the inside.
Mind you, once again, the difference is so tiny that it's incomprehensible.
Even more, velocity is meaningless is space, because there's no unmoveable referance point, and so only speed is important. Because of that, there's
no moving backwards or forwards in space... backwards and forwards only exists in the relation of where we are to where we were in relation to a third
object's position. Because of that, no matter how fast Superman spins around the earth, he can never travel back in time, unless he beats the speed
of light (and even then, maybe not).
Finally, what would happen if the earth did stop spinning? Well, it's the question of HOW we stop spinning that's really important here.
If we slow down, gradually, even just by 1 hour every 500 years (which is a hellava long time in cosmic standards), then we would hardly notice until
some 10 or 5 years had passed... and eve then only through having the sun set a little earlier or later than norm. Eventually, when stopped, the days
would still pass... it would just take a much longer time to do so (the earth still goes around the sun).
If the earth suddenly, unexpected STOPPED, then we'd all be dead. The earth spins VERY fast (when you think about it - remember the riddle). A sudden
stop would leave anyhing not firmly planeted to the ground (which is to say EVERYTHING would be affected - even mountains - since we're a loose solid
crust) woul suddenly be thrown at the speed that the earth was travelling. We'd be all, very, dead.
Hope all this makes some sense to you!
-Yarium