Earth at the Speed of Light

[PerpetualImperfexion]

If the Earth was rotating at the speed of light what would happen? How would our age be affected? Would the light be flashing because of the 20 rotations per second the earth makes? Would we be flying off of it? Would life even be possible?

[Gigablue]

The centrifugal force would be huge. The earth would flatten and everything would be thrown off of if. I think it would break apart shortly thereafter. Life would definitely not be possible.

[PerpetualImperfexion]

The centrifugal force would be huge. The earth would flatten and everything would be thrown off of if. I think it would break apart shortly thereafter. Life would definitely not be possible.

Ago, but assuming it didn't flatten and... well explode, and humans were living on it, how would our aging be affected. How would the constant flashing affect everyday life? How would humans have adapted and evolved differently?

[TheBigUnit]

If the Earth was rotating at the speed of light what would happen? How would our age be affected? Would the light be flashing because of the 20 rotations per second the earth makes? Would we be flying off of it? Would life even be possible?

Well first of all I'm no Dr. Kaku but here's what will prob happen, let's say earth does manage to stay intact at this speed, do u mean rotate as on it axis or orbiting the sun? I think u mean on its axis

Well the sun will look like a straight line, there prob be bombasrtic winds, life prob not exist really, may bacteria, the gravity will be sooo intense, age prob won't get affected,

Btw there's no such thing as centrifugal forces, just centripetal

Its density will go up and the planet will get smaller

[Human]

The centrifugal force would be huge. The earth would flatten and everything would be thrown off of if. I think it would break apart shortly thereafter. Life would definitely not be possible.

essentially this. we wouldn't go round the sun faster or anything, and days and nights would probably be around 4 seconds long
the earth itself would be squashed

[Gigablue]

essentially this. we wouldn't go round the sun faster or anything, and days and nights would probably be around 4 seconds long
the earth itself would be squashed

I was bored so I decided to calculate the actual length of a day. It would be about 0.133 seconds. Either way, the earth would be squashed almost immediately.

[TheBigUnit]

Why squashed? It depends on the forces, it mite roll up (I mean like if ur making a snake ferom playdoh) or if the forces r equal the earth will be a dense and smaller ball

[Gigablue]

Why squashed? It depends on the forces, it mite roll up (I mean like if ur making a snake ferom playdoh) or if the forces r equal the earth will be a dense and smaller ball

The earths rotation makes it bulge out at the equator. Due to the rotation, the earth isn't a perfect sphere. If the speed increased to the speed of light, the earth would bulge out hugely at the equator. It would flatten into a disk and might end up breaking apart.

[Human]

I mean, technically it's impossible for anything with mass to reach the speed of light in anyway so it could never happen according to the laws of physics anyway

[TheBigUnit]

I mean, technically it's impossible for anything with mass to reach the speed of light in anyway so it could never happen according to the laws of physics anyway

Ur rite as far as we kno nothing would be able to cause it, the only thing tht comes to mind that spins really fast is a pulsar and idt tht even goes light speed, but pulsars are also so dense and the pressure is so great tht it is believed tht the core is pure diamond

[Manjusri]

Believe it or not, things would be going much slower.

If the earth were to travel at the speed of light - and was able to withstand that speed for a long period of time, things would start to slow down. The gravity would be so intense it would probably take you around 15 minutes just to stand up from a sitting position.

Aging would also be slowed down immensely. It would take around.. maybe 15 years to age one year.

Of course though with the lovely laws of physics earth would never be able to withstand a rotation of the speed of light. If it was going the speed of light the new rotation speed would be 3 x 10^8. So everything would be flattened into about a millimeter thin crust, and just break apart at the seams. :yeah:

I was bored so I decided to calculate the actual length of a day. It would be about 0.133 seconds. Either way, the earth would be squashed almost immediately.

Actually if the earth was rotating at the speed of light you wouldn't be able to experience a full day, only 3/4 of one.

[IAMWILL]

To answer your question about time:
As you approach the speed of light, time actually slows down. It happens at relatively low speeds too, we have observed noticable slower aging in astronauts because they move at several thousand miles an hour whilst orbiting the earth. Its hard to think about, but although time slows down, aging doesn't. Now that sounds like a contradiction to my last statement, but let me explain. Our time is based on measurements, such as how long it takes the sun to complete a rotation or orbit. Time in this state is rather meaningless, because if you were on a different planet, time would be defined completely differently. We don't age based upon these measurements, we age at whatever rate our body decomposes. As the earth approaches the speed of light, the measurements (ie days and years) occur faster - thereby "slowing" time.

However all of this is irrelevant because as the earth approached the speed of light, it woule be completely ripped apart and disentegrate and everyone would be killed.

[Human]

To answer your question about time:
As you approach the speed of light, time actually slows down. It happens at relatively low speeds too, we have observed noticable slower aging in astronauts because they move at several thousand miles an hour whilst orbiting the earth. Its hard to think about, but although time slows down, aging doesn't. Now that sounds like a contradiction to my last statement, but let me explain. Our time is based on measurements, such as how long it takes the sun to complete a rotation or orbit. Time in this state is rather meaningless, because if you were on a different planet, time would be defined completely differently. We don't age based upon these measurements, we age at whatever rate our body decomposes. As the earth approaches the speed of light, the measurements (ie days and years) occur faster - thereby "slowing" time.

However all of this is irrelevant because as the earth approached the speed of light, it woule be completely ripped apart and disentegrate and everyone would be killed.
I think it works a bit different to what you explained, it's called time dilation