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Home Q & A Board Science-Related Homework Help Physics
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_amylu _amylu
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11 years ago
I've the heard the the velocity of the earth increases from its poles as we go toward the equator.
can you tell me how does this happen. Please try to explain in simple language
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#1
11 years ago
It is pretty easy to visualize. But you could even actually do it. Take a basketball and spin it. The poles - the ends - will just be rotating, they are not really moving at all. But the "equator" - the middle between the poles, is going around in a circle that has the radius of the basketball.

The circumference of the planet is about 24,000 miles, and we know it goes around about once a day. So it must be moving at about 1000 mph. The poles are just rotating, so they are moving at zero mph.
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#2
11 years ago
Imagine walking around a small circle around the north pole a couple feet across. You would need to walk very slowly for it to take an entire day. Compare it to walking along the equator which is almost 25.000 miles long.
An easier example is a plate. Pick a point on the edge and one near the center. Now turn the plate. It takes the same amount of time for either point to make a complete circle even though the distance it must travel is different. The Earth is the same way.
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#3
11 years ago
in order to understand this, you should visualize the earth as a stack of circles . in one rotation, all the circles rotate completely. the circles near the poles are smaller compared to the ones near the equator, so in order for all of them to complete one rotation, the bigger circle should travel faster in order to complete the rotation at the same time. so the velocity of the earth increases from the poles to the equator
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#4
11 years ago
Imagine walking around the earth at the equator. That would be a very long walk. Now imagine walking around the north pole staying a few feet away from it. That would ba a very short walk. Now if you just stood on the equator for 1 day and then a few feet from the pole, the distance you moved at the equator would be much farther in the same time. So you would have to be moving much faster at the equator. Does this help?
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