For centuries, humans believed that our planet was the centre of the universe because our Earth was not moving.
Our Earth is like a boat that takes us on an exciting journey through this universe.
Our planet orbits the Sun at a speed of 107,280 km/h, and it rotates on its axis at the equator at a speed of about 1,666 km/h.
So why don’t we feel like we are riding in a celestial vehicle?
To understand this process, the Chilean astronomer Yavira Rey tries to explain us with an example.
‘Imagine you are on a plane and at take off you feel like you are sinking into your seat and when you land you feel like you are going forward. This happens because inertia (the property of matter that causes matter to resist changing its state) encourages us to stay in our rest position.’
‘When the plane reaches its constant cruising speed, you don’t realize you’re moving and you can easily stop or walk yourself.’
So when the ship increases its speed, it feels as if it is not moving, and the same thing happens with the Earth.
Everything on Earth, including humans, travels at the same constant speed. We move with our planet, and we don’t feel any movement for it, but there are other factors, too.
Another force that plays a role
Gravity also helps us understand why we don’t feel the Earth spinning.
Imagine you’re in a Formula One car going at a constant speed in a straight line, says Salmar Varela, a physicist at the Central University of Venezuela.
At this point you won’t feel the car moving but when you reach a turn you will feel a force pushing you in the opposite direction of the turn, as if it is pulling you out of the car. trying to get out.
The reason you didn’t fall out of the car is because you’re wearing a seat belt, he says.
The same thing happens with our planet. When it rotates, a centripetal force is created.
But what happens is that our Earth’s gravity is much stronger than this central force, so we stay connected to our planet.
Gravity plays the role of a car’s seat belt, says Salmar Varela.
Theory of Relativity
For centuries, humans believed that our planet was the center of the universe and this was because our Earth was not moving.
‘For a long time it was believed that the Earth was the center of the universe because when people looked at the sky, it was the stars that moved,’ explains Venezuela’s Miriam Ringel, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany. ‘
But this idea changed when Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler developed the heliocentric model, while Galileo discovered the four moons of Jupiter and found that they were planets that orbited the Sun.
Proponents of geocentrism (the Earth as the center of the universe) argued that if our planet moved, we would feel it, but Galileo found a way to disprove this idea.
Galileo conducted some experiments on a boat that was traveling at a constant speed in a calm sea. Galileo poured a drop of water into a container.
Galileo noticed that even though the boat was moving forward, the water drops were always falling into the container.
That’s how Galileo explained that everything depends on where we are, says Rangel.
From here, Galileo formulated the theory of relativity.
Habit
Also we cannot feel the movement of the Earth because we are used to it.
“We are used to this movement of the Earth from our birth,” says Marta Ablaus, professor of earth physics at the University of Madrid.
Similarly, the fact is that our atmosphere also moves with the speed of the Earth and plays a role.
“The layer of air around the Earth also rotates at about the same speed, and we don’t feel ‘wind’ because of the Earth’s rotation,” says Marta Ablaus.
Astronomer Yaveera Ray also points out that the movement of our planet creates no wind because ‘space is practically empty.’
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