We know that everything in motion will come to rest. Our earth also start revolving. So my question is if earth start revolving, it will come to rest or not ? If yes then why and if no then why ?
We know that everything in motion will come to rest. Our earth also start revolving. So my question is if earth start revolving, it will come to rest or not ? If yes then why and if no then why ?
The Earth will never stop rotating. Earth rotates in the purest, most perfect vacuum in the whole universe—empty space. Space is so empty, so devoid of anything to slow the Earth down, that it just spins and spins, practically without friction. The moon sloshing our oceans saps the tiniest amount of energy from our spin, as does space dust. But these effects are reallytrivial.
It is similar to asking when a train will stop moving, if it’s traveling at 1,000 miles per hour, and the only thing slowing it down is collisions with mosquitoes. But wait, you ask, won’t that train eventually stop? Sure, it might take eons, but eventually all those mosquitoes will bring it to a halt. Well, you’d be right—Earth’s rotation should eventually slow down, and eventually stop altogether. It just won’t exist long enough.
In the billions of years that Earth would need to slow down, the universe around it will be going about its business. Most importantly for Earth, the sun will be burning through its hydrogen fuel, growing hotter and hotter as it does. This will boil away our oceans and leave Earth a sterile, seething ball of scorched rock. But then the sun will start to expand, more and more, until it completely engulfs the Earth. At this point, Earth will be slowly vaporized until it no longer exists. The remnants of that spin, the angular momentum of our world, will be transferred to the plasma of the sun, swirling it around for a bit, rippling the face of our bloated star. Then we will be gone, but not our spin. Our spin will live on in the rotation of the sun. And when, another billion years on, fusion stops within the core of the sun and those outer layers are blown away, what’s left will continue to spin. A little of that spin will be what we gave to it, this white dwarf tumbling away in what was once a lovely neighborhood on the outskirts of the galaxy. The white dwarf will spin and spin, cooling as it does, until it becomes a black dwarf trillions of years hence. But still it will spin.
The Earth will never stop rotating. Earth rotates in the purest, most perfect vacuum in the whole universe—empty space. Space is so empty, so devoid of anything to slow the Earth down, that it just spins and spins, practically without friction. The moon sloshing our oceans saps the tiniest amount of energy from our spin, as does space dust. But these effects are reallytrivial.
It is similar to asking when a train will stop moving, if it’s traveling at 1,000 miles per hour, and the only thing slowing it down is collisions with mosquitoes. But wait, you ask, won’t that train eventually stop? Sure, it might take eons, but eventually all those mosquitoes will bring it to a halt. Well, you’d be right—Earth’s rotation should eventually slow down, and eventually stop altogether. It just won’t exist long enough.
In the billions of years that Earth would need to slow down, the universe around it will be going about its business. Most importantly for Earth, the sun will be burning through its hydrogen fuel, growing hotter and hotter as it does. This will boil away our oceans and leave Earth a sterile, seething ball of scorched rock. But then the sun will start to expand, more and more, until it completely engulfs the Earth. At this point, Earth will be slowly vaporized until it no longer exists. The remnants of that spin, the angular momentum of our world, will be transferred to the plasma of the sun, swirling it around for a bit, rippling the face of our bloated star. Then we will be gone, but not our spin. Our spin will live on in the rotation of the sun. And when, another billion years on, fusion stops within the core of the sun and those outer layers are blown away, what’s left will continue to spin. A little of that spin will be what we gave to it, this white dwarf tumbling away in what was once a lovely neighborhood on the outskirts of the galaxy. The white dwarf will spin and spin, cooling as it does, until it becomes a black dwarf trillions of years hence. But still it will spin.
