Is our house and our cars really spinning like the earth is spinning?

Question

If the Earth spins, does everything else rotate and spin? No correct? Stationary items would remain stationary, correct? They don’t physically move themselves or rotate independently right? Like just because the earth is spinning, the items themselves aren’t?

Answer 1

To add to LeShante's answer, you're kind of touching on the idea of movement being relative. The earth is spinning on its axis while also rotating around the sun. So lets say you place a ball on the table in front of you: that ball is spinning along the earths axis at about 1000 mph and even crazier that ball is rotating around the sun at 67,000mph.

So why is it completely lazy not moving in front of you? Because you are also rotating around the earths axis at 1000 mph and also rotating around the sun at 67,000mph.

An abstract concept often forgotten is that motion and speed are all relative to the object or thing (i.e. you!) observing it. If you are moving at the same speed and in the same direction, to you it doenst look like its moving at all.

Think about it like if you were in a car driving 60mph and the car next to you is driving 60mph; you could easily wave to the other driver because it would appear almost stationary. But once you realize youre running late for work, you step on the gas pedal and reach 70mph and now you can see the other car effectively moving backwards "relative" to you.

Hope that helps, or please message me if you want to discuss more!

Answer 2

So, to answer your question... yes... and no.

The earth itself is rotating on its axis, at about 1,000 miles per hour. It is also revolving around our sun at about 67,000 miles per hour. As it is both spinning on its axis and moving through space, we too are moving.

Now, we have two things to consider

Newtons first law tells us that an object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will remain in motion unless the object is acted on by an outside force.

This means that if a plate is on your countertop, that plate is not moving of its own accord. As you stated, it is not moving itself independently... of the earths motion.

The reason why things aren't just flying off into space randomly is because of our second thing to consider... gravity.

Gravity is a force that is pulling us back to the surface of earth, so your plate won't sink through the counter or fly off as the earth moves.

So, why don't we feel it then?

It's the same phenomena we experience when we are inside a fast moving car and a ball is thrown. The ball isn't moving faster inside the car... because the whole car is moving.

So technically, since the earth is always moving, there aren't any truly 'stationary objects', but because of the earths size, we can move within its rotation, or come to 'rest'.