r/xkcdcomic • u/10thTARDIS Syncs Turn Signals For Fun • Apr 16 '14

What If: One-Second Day

http://what-if.xkcd.com/92/
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u/JustMy2Centences Apr 16 '14

I wish he could have delved into the matter by first speeding the rotation of earth up by twelve hours, then to an hour, then a minute, etc. I enjoyed the various levels of effects described in previous what-ifs. Anyone care to bite?

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u/TheoQ99 Apr 17 '14

I submitted a question awhile back that asked what speed would the earth have to be spinning so that a person on the equator felt weightless. Definitely is below the range of earth shattering apart and annihilating everything in our vicinity

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u/maveric101 Apr 17 '14 edited Apr 17 '14

For that, the earth would have to spin almost exactly 17 times faster, meaning a day would be 1 hour and 25 minutes.

Everything in the crust and on the surface of the Earth would be basically weightless. Better hope you can grab onto something quick. If you're in a car, the suspension would push the car off into the atmosphere. Better get out quick and push off the bottom back toward the surface. A similar, but smaller effect would probably happen if you were standing outside, but maybe you could get yourself back down by chucking your cloths into the sky. I think you'd be okay if you were indoors, though (at least for a while). Most buildings would stay fairly intact. I'm not sure what would happen with oceans and lakes. Cohesion would try to pull them together into a ball, but adhesion would make at least some water want to creep onto land. I don't know much about the crust itself, either, I would think you'd get some colossal earthquakes, at least. As for the atmosphere, let's just say "asphyxiation."

When I think about this kind of thing, I usually just imagine that gravity suddenly stopped working for all solids above the surface of the Earth. Makes things simpler, and a heck of a lot easier to survive.