How fast are we traveling through space?

Right now someone on the equator is spinning with the earth at a rate of "just over 1000 miles per hour." and the earth is traveling in orbit of the sun at a rate of "67,000 miles per hour". Not on only that but the sun is rotating around the galactic center of the milkey way galaxy at an astronomical rate. Not fast enough? well the universe is expanding at an exponential rate as well. Put it all togeather and we are traveling at an enormous rate of speed RIGHT NOW!!

The circumference of the Earth at the equator is 25,000 miles. The Earth rotates in about 24 hours. Therefore, if you were to hang above the surface of the Earth at the equator without moving, you would see 25,000 miles pass by in 24 hours, at a speed of 25000/24 or just over 1000 miles per hour.

Multiply by cosine of your latitude to see how fast the Earth is rotating where you are.

Earth is also moving around the Sun at about 67,000 miles per hour.

I am trying to find out the speed of the turning of the Earth



The reason it doesn't seem like we are traveling very fast is because we are trapped in earths gravetational field. Earth's gravity

-E-

[edit on 25-2-2010 by MysterE]

reply to post by MysterE


oh yeah, relativity is crazy. its the same reason a fly on a moving bus isnt flying faster than the bus, the fly itself is moving real slow, it only seems fast to someone outside of the bus who is standing still. Im always glad to hear when someone realizes that both the earth AND the sun are in transit. most people have NO IDEA that the sun takes a 250,000,000 year trip around the milky way.

The only thing that bothers me is how orbital bombardment can occur in cycles, and it makes me wonder if at some point in the suns trip we pass through some sort of asteroid field. could be likely because of the relative uniformity of the dates of most of the moons craters....

Lucky for us that we're on a planet with gravity.

Originally posted by drsmooth23
reply to post by MysterE

 

The only thing that bothers me is how orbital bombardment can occur in cycles, and it makes me wonder if at some point in the suns trip we pass through some sort of asteroid field. could be likely because of the relative uniformity of the dates of most of the moons craters....

I think we can count on it at some point in the future, but by then we will probably be long gone!

-E-

Great thread.

I was reading recently how these very effects - earth movement in solar system, sun movement in relation to nearest stars etc, is such a complexity in itself that it mostly is missed from the equations we use to calculate distances of other 'static' objects and the age of those points of reference.

Because cosmologists are using distant objects which don't 'appear' to move much (at all), the effect of our own movements are missed out of the equation which some scientists fear could throw much of whats been previously thought correct straight out of the window, but with more study it could begin to unravel the origin and destiny of the universe.

Is it the Gravity of the super massive (are they just calling it massive now?) black hole at the centre of the galaxy that the sun orbits? I know some star groups orbit in clusters around larger bodies, as well as the galactic centre?

I'm not an astrophysicist or cosmologist, I just take an interest so if anyone here can verify that while I look through the hundreds of (poorly) bookmarked pages so I can find the source?! It's one of those 'too big to comprehend' questions. More questions in my post than answers, but then again that's the nature of the somewhat unknown.

[edit on 25-2-2010 by Pr0t0]

just remember that you're standing
on a planet that's evolving, and revolving at 900 miles per hour
orbiting at 90 miles a second, so it's reconned
a sun that is the source of all our power

the sun and you and me, and all the stars the we can see
are moving at a million miles a day
on the outer spiral arm at 40000 miles an hour
in a galaxy we call the milky way. [/monty pythons]

I hope that clears things up

S and F! Great thread!

Thanks for starting it.

Originally posted by Pr0t0

Because cosmologists are using distant objects which don't 'appear' to move much (at all), the effect of our own movements are missed out of the equation which some scientists fear could throw much of whats been previously thought correct straight out of the window, but with more study it could begin to unravel the origin and destiny of the universe.

I never thought of that, I bet there are numerous calculations that are off because they did not take this into consideration

-E-

Originally posted by Acidtastic
just remember that you're standing
on a planet that's evolving, and revolving at 900 miles per hour
orbiting at 90 miles a second, so it's reconned
a sun that is the source of all our power

the sun and you and me, and all the stars the we can see
are moving at a million miles a day
on the outer spiral arm at 40000 miles an hour
in a galaxy we call the milky way. [/monty pythons]

I hope that clears things up

Beat me to it !

reply to post by Pr0t0


Been thinking that for YEARS. thats the problem with overtly complex equations that people just assume are right.

Its like building a house on sand. It wont stand through time because the foundation is off. But then again, astrophysicists are INSANELY smart for the most part and I almost bet they take these things into account, but who knows!

There is no privileged point of reference. There is no absolute velocity; we must arbitrarily assign a velocity of 0 to what is called a point of reference.

If you use Earth as a point of reference, it's actually the Sun and everything else that appear to be moving around the Earth.

When you drive on the Interstate, are you really going 60 miles per hour? When you stand still, are you really moving 0 distance?

All these questions make no sense until you admit that there is no privileged or absolute point of reference. This was one of Einstein's postulates of the theory of special relativity.

If everything is falling from our solar system to our galaxy then when do we hit bottom and where is the bottom? LMAO!