Why, if the Earth is moving at thousands of kilometers per hour, do we not feel like we are moving at full speed?

The Earth is a ship that takes us on an exciting journey through space. The planet moves at a speed of 107,280 kilometers per hour around the Sun and rotates on its axis at a speed of about 1,666 kilometers per hour at the equator.

So why don’t we feel like we’re driving a star car?

To understand this phenomenon, Chilean astrophysicist Javiera Rey gives us an example.

“Imagine being on a plane,” says Rey, co-founder of Star Tres, an initiative that disseminates scientific knowledge in Latin America.

“When you take off, you feel like you’re sinking into the seat, and when you land, you feel like you’re moving forward. This is because inertia forces us to remain in a position of rest.”

“When the plane reaches cruising speed, you are not aware that you are moving. – You can stand and walk.

Thus, when an airplane is maintained at a constant speed, it appears to be stationary.

The same thing happens with the Earth: since it moves at a constant speed, it appears as if it is not actually traversing space.

Everything on Earth, including people, moves at the same constant speed. we rotate with the planettherefore we do not feel movement.

But there are other key elements.

Gravity also helps explain why we don’t feel the Earth’s rotation.

“Imagine being in a Formula 1 car and you’re moving in a straight line at a constant speed,” says Solmar Varela, a theoretical physicist and researcher at the Central University of Venezuela.

“At this point you won’t feel the car moving, but when you reach the turn you will feel a force pushing you towards the opposite side of the turn. like he’s trying to push you out of the carVarela explains.

“The reason you don’t get thrown out of the car is because you’re wearing a seat belt,” he says.

The same thing happens to our planet. As it rotates, it creates a centrifugal force that would theoretically force us shoot into space.

However, what happens is that the Earth’s gravity is much stronger than the centrifugal force, so we remain glued to the planet.

“Gravity acts like a car seat belt.”Varela points out.

The feeling that the Earth is not moving was one of the reasons why for centuries it was believed that our planet was the center of the Universe.

“For a long time it was believed that the Earth was the center of the cosmos because when people looked at the sky I saw the stars move“explains Venezuelan astrophysicist Miriam Rengel, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany.

“But the situation changed when Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler developed the heliocentric model, and Galileo discovered the four moons of Jupiter and saw that it was the planets that revolved around the sun,” says Rengel.

Defenders of geocentrism argued that if the planet moves, we will feel it and that if an object is thrown from a height, it will not fall on the ground. but behind.

But Galileo found a way to refute this.

He did some experiments on a ship that was sailing at a constant speed in a calm sea, and poured a drop into a container.

There he noticed that although the ship was moving forward, drops kept falling into the container.

“By this he showed that it all depends on where we are– says Rengel.

Thus, Galileo was the first to formulate the principle relativity.

Another reason why we are unable to perceive the movement of the Earth is that we are simply accustomed to it.

“We are accustomed to this movement from birthexplains Marta Abalos, professor of Earth Physics at the Complutense University of Madrid.

For his part, Ray points out that the auditory system of living beings is adapted to prevent the movement of the planet from causing us, for example, dizziness.

The fact that the atmosphere moves with the Earth at almost the same speed also plays a role.

“Since the layer of air surrounding the Earth rotates at almost the same speed, we don’t feel any “wind” due to the Earth’s rotation“, explains Abalos.

Moreover, Ray points out, the planet’s motion does not cause wind because “space is practically empty.”

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