Why don’t I feel the Earth spinning?

Asked by: Dougie Parker (age 6)

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If we are on a roundabout spinning quickly, we can feel a strange force that seems to want to throw us off. Our Earth is like a giant roundabout spinning in space at around 1,000km/h (as measured at the UK’s latitude). So why don’t we feel that same force really strongly? The reason is that there’s another force acting on us: gravity. This holds us to the ground about 1,000 times more strongly than the Earth’s spin is trying to throw us off.

Read more:

• Why does the Earth spin?
• How fast would Earth need to spin for humans to be thrown into space?

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