If there were a great migration of people toward the equator, how would this affect the length of the day?

This is a concept question for physics class and I have no idea.

answer 2

If there has been a large migration of people towards the equator, it increases the Earth’s moment of inertia. Due to the law of conservation of angular momentum, the angular velocity of the Earth around its axis decreases. The day is therefore a little longer.

answer 3

that would not be the case, we are not heavy enough.

Answer 1

Why does someone refuse Frost? Your answer is conceptually correct: if everyone moved towards the earth’s equator, then the moment of inertia of the earth-human system would increase. The angular momentum of the Earth-people system is the moment of inertia multiplied by the angular velocity. Conservation of angular momentum (since no external force, such as a collision with an asteroid, acts to alter it) means that if the moment of inertia increases, the angular velocity decreases – which means that the Earth would rotate more slowly – hence the day (time for one rotation). Earth) would increase in duration, at least conceptually.
The effect is the opposite of the skater spinning, pulling their arms out and thus accelerating the spin. If she stretched out her arms (simulating people moving towards the equator), she would slow down.
But Bob is also right. The increase is practically nil. The moment of inertia of 6 billion people all at the equator is their mass multiplied by the square of their distance from the center of the Earth, or about 6E9 * 50 kg/person * 4E13 m = 1.2E25 kg-m^ 2, where Ex represents 10^ x (10 at x). It’s about ten trillion billion. That sounds like a lot, but not compared to Earth’s moment of inertia, which can be calculated at around 2.4E37 kg-m^2, or about a trillion times the increased moment of inertia caused by all people moving towards Earth. Ecuador. Thus, the movement would increase the length of a day by one part per trillion, or about a tenth of a microsecond.

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