How fast the earth rotates

As the Earth spins, these signals come in and out of view. For billions of years, the moon has been ever so gently tugging at the Earth and slowing down its rotation. The mechanism boils down to an exchange of energy between the Earth and moon. That rotational energy is transferred to the moon, which is moving away from the Earth ever so slowly, at a rate of about an inch and a half every year.

Some studies have attempted to look even further back in time, and one group of researchers estimates that 1. At that time, the moon was likely some 27, miles closer to Earth than it is now, they say.

On shorter time scales, there are many different things that influence how quickly the Earth is rotating. On the surface of the planet, the motions of wind and waves also change how fast the Earth spins. The tides that slosh the oceans back and forth affect rotation speeds, and so does the wind. Seismic activity , too can affect how quickly Earth rotates.

Just a figure skater rotates faster when they pull their arms in, when mass on Earth moves closer to its center, the planet will spin more quickly, and vice versa. But once the plane is flying at cruising altitude, passengers won't feel the speed of hundreds of miles per hour because the speed doesn't change. The passengers won't feel the speed because those passengers are actually moving at the same speed and direction, or velocity, as the airplane.

There's no relative motion — everyone sitting on the airplane is moving at the same speed as the airplane itself. The only way passengers might notice their and the plane's movement is by looking out the window at the passing landscape. For humans standing on the surface of our planet, they don't feel Earth hurtling around the sun because they're also hurtling around the sun at the same speed.

JoAnna Wendel is a freelance science writer living in Portland, Oregon. She mainly covers Earth and planetary science but also loves the ocean, invertebrates, lichen and moss. She graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in general sciences because she couldn't decide on her favorite area of science. In her spare time, JoAnna likes to hike, read, paint, do crossword puzzles and hang out with her cat, Pancake. Live Science.

JoAnna Wendel. They found that, instead of slowing down, the Earth has started to spin faster. It is now spinning faster than at any time in the last 50 years.

In fact, the shortest 28 days on record all occurred during However, experts predict that this speeding up is a temporary effect and the Earth will start slowing down again in the future.