It’s hard to believe, but we are actually on a planet that moves like a bullet. The reason for night and day is not the Sun’s rotation around the Earth; The Earth rotates around its axis at a speed of up to 1,600 kilometers per hour.
We do not feel this rotation because we always move at the same speed. Think of it as if you were inside a train running on new rails: If the windows were closed, you could easily walk inside and hardly notice that it was moving. We only perceive movement when the speed changes.
What if the Earth stopped?
Let’s imagine that train suddenly stops. We would involuntarily jump forward from our seats; because we would continue to move at the speed of the train. This phenomenon was explained by Galileo Galilei in the 17th century, and was later formulated by Isaac Newton’s first law: inertia. In other words, an object tends to continue its current motion unless there is a force slowing it down or accelerating it.
If the Earth’s rotation suddenly stopped, living things and oceans would continue to move eastward at speeds of more than a thousand kilometers per hour.
What would day and night be like?
The planet would split into two hemispheres and there would no longer be a day-night cycle. One hemisphere would be constantly exposed to sunlight, experiencing a scorching and endless day. The other would be immersed in a permanent and extremely cold night. There would be no sunrise or sunset, only a narrow transition zone between the two.
