Oli Seville Posted September 13, 2005 Posted September 13, 2005 What do you think would happen to the planet (and everything in it) if the world stopped turning - one side was left in permanent daylight, the other in eternal darkness? All speculations welcome...
YT2095 Posted September 13, 2005 Posted September 13, 2005 everything not bolted down (including some things that are) would travel from west to east at over 1000 MPH, many things would get broken. as for survivors, only those on airoplanes and the like would stand a chance.
insane_alien Posted September 13, 2005 Posted September 13, 2005 umm he said every thing in the earth i think he meant that people would stop atthe same time. well the earth would still have to turn once per year for one side to be in permanent daylight but what would happen is the daylight side would become too hot to be habitable and the nightside would be too cold to be habitle so we would all need to squese into the only place we could survive which is near the terminator(slightly to the daylight side) but a lot of people would die as only a small percentage of the earth would be alright to live in.
Oli Seville Posted September 13, 2005 Author Posted September 13, 2005 Right. Now imagine the same situation, but gravity etc remains as it is now - what about the light and dark side? What would happen to the environment, life and weather for instance? What do you rekon it would be like? I would like to hear more about this "terminator" area...
insane_alien Posted September 13, 2005 Posted September 13, 2005 why would gravity change? the centrifuge effect on earth is negligble anyway. Enviroment: almost haalf desert nad almost half ice with a narrow strip around the terminator that is habitable. life: 90+% would die weather: not very extreme in the desertand ice (except extremes of heat) at the habitable zone the weather would be very stormy almost all the time. what it would be like: hell on earth
YT2095 Posted September 13, 2005 Posted September 13, 2005 ok, if we ignore the stopping effect and focus on the weather, my guess is that since the suns energy is what causes our weather, and nothing there will have changed, neither will the net effect of the weather in terms of energy either. the weather Will change, and I expect some of this total energy that is currently shared evenly as we know it, will be concentrated in certain areas more so than now. I`de esstimate this area would be along the Hot/Cold border as that will see the greatest transitions of energy exchange. I`m only hypothesising here!
Oli Seville Posted September 13, 2005 Author Posted September 13, 2005 why would gravity change? the centrifuge effect on earth is negligble anyway. Enviroment: almost haalf desert nad almost half ice with a narrow strip around the terminator that is habitable. life: 90+% would die weather: not very extreme in the desertand ice (except extremes of heat) at the habitable zone the weather would be very stormy almost all the time. what it would be like: hell on earth Could you describe the habitable area - the terminator - a bit further? Ie would there be flora and fauna? How do think we could survive? Be as speculative as you want - I'm researching in the name of fiction..
insane_alien Posted September 13, 2005 Posted September 13, 2005 I'm researching in the name of fiction.. GENIUS! lol! the terminator is the border between night and day. we cross it twice every 24 hours the habitable zone would probably be around 100-1000 miles wide (thats an "i actually have no idea how wide the damn thing would be) and would encircle the globe. we would want this to happen in the nothern hemispheres winter as this would allow the ice on antartica to melt and we could have a decent amount of land. plants would grow but only robust ones as the weather would be bad(think constant lightning and more than a few tornadoes). the bad weather would happen because hot air from the hemisphere of earth that gets taosted would flow towards the frozen side and when hot air(probably moist due to tremendous evapouration rates) meets cold air you get bad weather basically. we could survive in buildings that can take the weather. small settelments could possibly survive in the desert(why is it now i get he feeling i've wrote "dessert") as long as they are near a river/ocean/sea and have some serious airconditioning. some places on earth may reach 125*C and drop as low as -125*C Survival in the iced over region of the world will be left to well equiped scientific expiditions and the russians who would think absolute zero its perfectly warm as long as you have some vodka(note: i have great respect for he russians as i seen one streaking when it was -25*C)
Oli Seville Posted September 14, 2005 Author Posted September 14, 2005 GENIUS! lol! the terminator is the border between night and day. we cross it twice every 24 hours the habitable zone would probably be around 100-1000 miles wide (thats an "i actually have no idea how wide the damn thing would be) and would encircle the globe. we would want this to happen in the nothern hemispheres winter as this would allow the ice on antartica to melt and we could have a decent amount of land. plants would grow but only robust ones as the weather would be bad(think constant lightning and more than a few tornadoes). the bad weather would happen because hot air from the hemisphere of earth that gets taosted would flow towards the frozen side and when hot air(probably moist due to tremendous evapouration rates) meets cold air you get bad weather basically. we could survive in buildings that can take the weather. small settelments could possibly survive in the desert(why is it now i get he feeling i've wrote "dessert") as long as they are near a river/ocean/sea and have some serious airconditioning. some places on earth may reach 125*C and drop as low as -125*C Survival in the iced over region of the world will be left to well equiped scientific expiditions and the russians who would think absolute zero its perfectly warm as long as you have some vodka(note: i have great respect for he russians as i seen one streaking when it was -25*C) Now thats more like it!!! Do you think the best place to live would be underground?
insane_alien Posted October 1, 2005 Posted October 1, 2005 underground could maybe work on the nightside as long as you dig far enough down to get heat from the mantle. on the day side the rock would eventually get too hot in all areas. it would also help bring magma closer to the surface and that could probably lead to earthquakes and volcanoes. i have no idea about it really i'm just letting my mind wander
J.C.MacSwell Posted October 1, 2005 Posted October 1, 2005 underground could maybe work on the nightside as long as you dig far enough down to get heat from the mantle. on the day side the rock would eventually get too hot in all areas. it would also help bring magma closer to the surface and that could probably lead to earthquakes and volcanoes. i have no idea about it really i'm just letting my mind wander No spin at all and the "terminator zone" should move about 1 degree every 24 hours.
swansont Posted October 1, 2005 Posted October 1, 2005 No spin at all and the "terminator zone" should move about 1 degree every 24 hours. Right. Similar to the moon, which does, in fact, spin on its axis.
RVonse Posted October 2, 2005 Posted October 2, 2005 I don't see how plant life could survive living in 100% darkness or light. Seems to me lke most of the trees would go into some sort of shock. None of the indiginous plant life of earth has evolved to live under those conditions.
Cap'n Refsmmat Posted October 2, 2005 Posted October 2, 2005 Right. Similar to the moon, which does, in fact, spin on its axis. That's the flaw with most of these arguments--it wouldn't be eternal night or day, it would be like the North or South Poles, with 6-month cycles of sun or night. It would help regulate the temperatures some.
insane_alien Posted October 2, 2005 Posted October 2, 2005 i was assuming he meant that it was still rotating in such a way that(like the moon to earth) one side of the earth always faced the sun. no idea why tho
Ophiolite Posted October 2, 2005 Posted October 2, 2005 The atmosphere freezes out on the dark side. Atmosphere from the light side moves around to replace it. In short order the entire atmosphere is frozen. This is an absolute.
insane_alien Posted October 2, 2005 Posted October 2, 2005 we could run pipes round the earth to distribute the heat a bit more evenly to perhapsstop the entire atmosphere liquifying
Xyph Posted October 2, 2005 Posted October 2, 2005 If there's enough air circulation the atmosphere will be prevented from freezing to the surface or boiling into space as well, although this might make things a bit windier at the terminator.
CPL.Luke Posted October 2, 2005 Posted October 2, 2005 the atmosphere wouldn't freeze over, because the current atmosphere doesn't freeze over, which means the earth recieves enough energy from the sun to prevent this.
lucaspa Posted October 4, 2005 Posted October 4, 2005 Could you describe the habitable area - the terminator - a bit further? Ie would there be flora and fauna? How do think we could survive? Be as speculative as you want - I'm researching in the name of fiction.. If you are doing that, Poul Anderson in the 1960s did several stories on a planet with intelligent beings on a world that was tide-locked so that there was a permanent day side and night side. It was part of his Polsoltechnic League stories. The world was Ikranaka but I don't remember the title of the stories.
Oli Seville Posted October 11, 2005 Author Posted October 11, 2005 If you are doing that, Poul Anderson in the 1960s did several stories on a planet with intelligent beings on a world that was tide-locked so that there was a permanent day side and night side. It was part of his Polsoltechnic League stories. The world was Ikranaka but I don't remember the title of the stories. Thanks guys, some interesting stuff here. Thanks for helping out - I hope you enjoyed mulling this over....
Oli Seville Posted October 11, 2005 Author Posted October 11, 2005 If you are doing that, Poul Anderson in the 1960s did several stories on a planet with intelligent beings on a world that was tide-locked so that there was a permanent day side and night side. It was part of his Polsoltechnic League stories. The world was Ikranaka but I don't remember the title of the stories. Thanks guys, some interesting stuff here. Thanks for helping out - I hope you enjoyed mulling this over....
DRU Posted October 21, 2005 Posted October 21, 2005 everything not bolted down (including some things that are) would travel from west to east at over 1000 MPH' date=' many things would get broken.as for survivors, only those on airoplanes and the like would stand a chance.[/quote'] at 1000 mph, wouldn't everything fly off into space?
Conceptual Posted October 23, 2005 Posted October 23, 2005 If the earth was only slowly rotating on its axis such that one side always was light and hot this would shift the thermal gradients of the earth and cause the weather convection to go from the hot side to the cool side. If the cold side was cold enough then eventually all the water in the hot zone would become snow and ice on the cold side. The hot side would become desert. There should be a circle between the hot and cold zone where a balance between hot-cold and light darkness would form where moderate conditions would allow plants to grow.
swansont Posted October 23, 2005 Posted October 23, 2005 at 1000 mph, wouldn't everything fly off into space? No, that's below escape velocity. You'd fly off some short distance and land, and skid to a halt.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now