If I could levitate one inch above the Earth would the Earth spin beneath me?

Ok Iam ignorant on physics and such things, but i just would like to know this .

Its a short and simple question by a short and simple and fat guy.

But could I travel free by simply being above the ground by one inch?

eventually. But you would probably bump into something. Ha!

Originally posted by Dr Expired
But could I travel free by simply being above the ground by one inch?

Simply jump 25.4mm above the ground and see what happens

When you put it like that, it sounds possible, but it isn't, If that were the case you would hit something instantly and die, fact is, your still in Earth's gravity which plays a factor in it all.

Jamie.

i dont honestly know the answer.. but it is a bloody good question..it seems the earth would spin under you, but who knows with gravity etc..

i hope you get the correct answer here..

im gonna flag and star you.. purely for thinking outside the box..

If you had the power to levitate you could probably be able to fight the earths rotation gravitational pull also. lol

Of course it would. But since you're both already traveling in the same direction at the same speed, you would maintain your relative position to the ground. Now if you could levitate and "fix" your position to that particular x,y,z point in space, it would probably be pretty messy, as if suddenly the entire solar system was racing away from you at an incredible velocity.

it takes around a day of flying at 500 mph to get to new zealand from the uk so that must mean the earth is spinning faster than a jumbo jet fly's and therefore you would be travelling at over 500mph every time you jumped etc.. and i think watching the olympic high diving would be quite strange if this was how things worked.

Currently,no.

Theoretically, ?

Possibly ????????

If you can, explain it. Currently, gravity says you can not.

Just wondrering in my fat slobbish beery way (yes thats what I once overheard myself been described as if that may be the key to transversing the Universe?
Kick the knees up eject from an interplanetary spaceship and let the universe cozy on up , and tere it is whilst we sleep out a hangover , a new galaxy, pounding on our head?

haven't they invented FLYING for that :-)

Possibly, if you could completely change your inertial reference frame; but to do that would probably involve developing some sort of worm-hole related technology, so why would you want to orbit one inch above the ground (quite hazardous) when you could just portal there?

if you were stood in a speeding train and you jumped up in the air, would you move down the carriage untill you touched the ground again?

If you could levitate above the atmosphere, then the answer is yes. Levitating 1 inch above the surface of the earth is no different than jumping or jogging. You are still contained in the earth's atmosphere and you still have the same inertia and momentum as the earth.

Can you through a baseball at 500 mph? No, but if you are playing catch with someone on an airplane, and the airplane is travelling at 500 mph, then so is the baseball that you are throwing.

Levitating 1 inch above the surface won't make any difference.

Without time travel those who replied about jumping 1 inch and travelling on a train have pretty much covered it.

With time travel it becomes a lot more interesting. If you were to time travel back just 1 second then your point in space is completely different and you would die from suffocation as you end up in the vacuum of space....unless that point in space 1 second ago was a sun or a planet. That's why time travel is dangerous, you need to take account of the movement of all objects and make sure when you travel through time you also adjust your position in space. A lot of pioneer time travellers forgot that and are floating corpses in space as we speak.

Originally posted by doubledutch
if you were stood in a speeding train and you jumped up in the air, would you move down the carriage untill you touched the ground again?

No, The air inside the carrige isnt moving as fast as the train, infact unless a window or door is open the air remains steady. When I was a kid I used to wonder why, when on a bus & if I threw an object up in the air to let it fall and catch it, why it didnt just fly behind me instead of going straiught up and down into my hand, however if I was sitting on an open top bus then for sure the object would be carried away by the wind behind me. So i guess to answer the levitation question, the atmosphere remains the same from where your standing to how ever high your levitating, you wont be carried along in the opposite direction of earths spin

reply to post by DarthPhobos


yes that was my point

Originally posted by wrksstudios
eventually. But you would probably bump into something. Ha!

Yeah. At 1700km/h (at the equator).

And if you didn't hit anything, you would have to deal with wind at that speed.

Fortunately, it doesn't work that way.

Originally posted by lewman
.. and i think watching the olympic high diving would be quite strange if this was how things worked.

I love it! Now here's your bonus question (lol)

Satellites and the ISS... do they REALLY revolve around the Earth, or do they just sit still and the Earth spins beneath them?!

Originally posted by new_here

Originally posted by lewman
.. and i think watching the olympic high diving would be quite strange if this was how things worked.

I love it! Now here's your bonus question (lol)

Satellites and the ISS... do they REALLY revolve around the Earth, or do they just sit still and the Earth spins beneath them?!

They orbit the Earth. If they just sat still, they would get left behind as the Earth orbitted the Sun and also as the Sun orbitted the galactic center. The same goes for the Moon and all the 'junk' we've left in orbit.

Regarding the levitation question - it would depend on how or what you used to levitate with. If you're just talking about floating 'in the air' then no, you would stay in the exact same spot just as you would if you were standing on the ground...unless a strong wind blew you somewhere of course.

More exotic ways of doing it that might do as you pose, would make the method impractical for use as there would be better alternatives using it.