The Earth has been rotating for 4.6 billion years without stopping. Where does the power come from?

In the past, humans did not understand why there were “the waxing and waning of the sun and the moon, the stars in the sky, the changing of winter and summer, and the harvest in autumn and the storage in winter” in the world. Later, after understanding the movement mechanism of the earth, humans suddenly realized that the earth, which we thought was not moving, is actually rotating all the time.

So, the Earth has been rotating for 4.6 billion years and has not stopped. Where does its power come from? Could it be that the Earth is a "perpetual motion machine"?

The Earth is always rotating

Is the Earth really a perpetual motion machine?

First of all, it should be explained that humans have tried every possible way, but still cannot create a perpetual motion machine. A perpetual motion machine is actually a machine that does not require any energy or power from the outside world, and can maintain motion and output power under only one condition.

Simply put, the perpetual motion machine does not need to consume any energy, but can output energy continuously. It not only violates the law of conservation of energy, but also rubs the second law of thermodynamics to the ground. It is hailed as a machine that will never exist.

Perpetual motion machine imagined by humans

The reason why the earth is said to be a "perpetual motion machine" is that in the process of exploration, humans have discovered that the earth has not only been rotating for a long time, but it seems that there is no energy input. Therefore, by replacing the concept, many people believe that the earth may be a "perpetual motion machine". After all, its rotation is not affected at all without energy supply.

But in fact, this view is wrong, because the Earth's rotation does not always maintain a uniform speed, and it is not without external energy input. It's just that we have not found definite evidence of the initial evolution of the Earth. So, where does the "power" of the Earth's continuous rotation come from?

The evolution of the Earth

Where does the power for the Earth's rotation come from?

All this starts with the birth of the Earth. According to the measurement of radiocarbon dating, we can know that the Earth was gradually "accumulated" after the formation of the Sun. Under the action of gravitational collapse, the Sun first appeared, and then under the action of rotation, many substances combined together and eventually became the original Earth.

Hypothesis on the formation of the solar system

The Earth at that time was not the blue star we see now, but more like a burning fireball, with a surface full of magma oceans, and the force generated by the collapse of the nebula at that time would become the "original force" for the planet's subsequent rotation. Therefore, according to this statement, the Earth absorbed enough energy from its birth, and these forces would keep it rotating continuously for more than 4 billion years.

The original earth

Therefore, the first prerequisite for a perpetual motion machine is that it does not require energy input, which the Earth does not have.

The second question is whether rotation consumes energy. The answer is of course it does, but it is difficult for us to detect this consumption. Because the universe is almost a vacuum, the friction on the earth during its rotation is very small.

In addition, there is a theory that the source of the earth's power is a violent impact that occurred many years ago. The impact was caused by Theia, which is about the same size as Mars but much smaller than the earth. However, after the violent impact, the earth was still greatly damaged and a large amount of material was ejected, which eventually led to the appearance of the moon.

Theia hits Earth

In this case, the energy of the impact may have been retained, allowing the Earth to keep rotating. However, Theia has not yet been confirmed, so this theory is not accepted. Moreover, compared with the energy generated by the impact, people are more inclined to choose the sun. After all, this unique big brother in the solar system may not only help the Earth rotate, but also help other planets rotate.

The Sun and its planets

In short, the first view is currently widely accepted. But no matter which view it is, it can prove that the earth is by no means a perpetual motion machine as imagined by humans, and based on the changes in the earth's rotation speed, we can actually see some clues.

The Earth's "rotation" speed is not stable

Scientists have inferred that the Earth's rotation speed is actually in the process of slowing down. When the Earth was first formed, its rotation speed may be several times that of today, so the change in speed shows that the Earth is actually constantly braking, and this brake may be the familiar moon.

According to the research of "paleobiological clock", the rotation speed of the earth is getting slower year by year. For example, in the Late Ordovician period 440 million years ago, the earth orbited the sun once and rotated 412 times, that is, there were 412 days in a year. By the Middle Devonian period 370 million years ago, there were 398 days in a year.

The year was longer during the Devonian period

Why do we say that the moon is the earth's brake device? This is mainly related to people's discovery of tidal effects.

Although the mass of the moon is insignificant compared to that of the earth, the tidal locking between the earth and the moon will cause constant friction between the moon and the earth, thereby reducing the rotation speed of the earth.

This can be seen from the changes in the time measured by people. After leaving the reference system of the relative motion of the sun and the earth, people found that the rotation of the earth is sometimes fast and sometimes slow. For example, the rotation speed is very slow in spring, but it suddenly starts to speed up in autumn. This periodic change is not only related to the atmosphere and seasonal changes of the earth itself, but also closely related to the tidal effect of the moon.

Tidal effects on the Earth's rotation

In addition, the internal changes of the earth may also help it to brake. When the internal matter of the earth moves, the rise and fall of various elements can affect its rotation speed. For example, many large-magnitude earthquakes may speed up the rotation of the earth.

The movement of internal matter will also affect the rotation speed

In short, whether it is faster or slower, it shows that the rotation of the earth itself is not maintained at a certain value and never changes. On the contrary, it is very unstable because it is affected by various factors.

In this case, we obviously cannot classify it as a perpetual motion machine. After all, after the analysis, the rotation of the earth is not perfect.

It is worth mentioning that since humans discovered that the rotation of the earth is affected by various factors, they began to worry about what humans would face if an accident happened one day and the earth stopped rotating, or suddenly stepped on the accelerator and started to rotate faster.

In fact, there is no need to worry too much about stepping on the accelerator. Although the Earth will accelerate after every major earthquake, it is still unlikely to accelerate to a speed that will cause a disaster. However, it is possible that the Earth will gradually slow down and eventually stop completely under rotation. So, what terrible things will happen if the Earth stops rotating?

If the Earth stopped rotating

Many people may think that if the Earth stops rotating, it will just lose the night and day, but is it really that simple? You know, although we cannot feel the Earth's rotation, we are essentially rotating with it, so when the Earth suddenly stops rotating, the atmosphere on Earth will not also step on the emergency brake, but continue to flow eastward. At this time, the wind force will suddenly increase, even reaching more than ten times the speed of a force 12 gale.

Earth's thick atmosphere

Under the sweep of super strong winds, the seawater on the earth will become huge waves that are unimaginable to humans. At this time, the past tsunamis are considered low-level. These huge waves will pour toward the east and then tear apart human cities. The destructive power may reach tens of thousands of times that of the previous Chilean earthquake tsunami.

The tsunami after the earth stops rotating will be extremely terrifying

This could be considered a true "big reshuffle". Under such an offensive, almost no creature could escape the sanctions of natural forces.

Even if you are really the chosen one and survive, you will have to face the long-term impact of the earth stopping its rotation. This long-term impact, of course, is the loss of the rotation of day and night, and the cycle will become one year.

It is reported that when the day and night cycle becomes one year, the sun shines during the day, the ground receives more solar radiation, and the temperature is very high. At night, the ground emits long-wave radiation outward, loses heat, the temperature drops, and the temperature difference between day and night becomes larger, which will affect the growth of plants and interfere with the life rhythm of animals.

The rotation of the earth causes the alternation of day and night

And when the earth stops rotating, the satellites we launched will become scrap metal, and even the operation of the sun and the moon will change. Under this influence, human survival may become difficult!

If the Earth stops rotating, many abnormal changes will occur.

Source: Cosmic Decoding