Ask Me Anything - spoonitnow

How do you think we would be impacted if the earth's rotation was faster? In other words, what if it only took an hour for a single rotation instead of 24 hours?

Originally Posted by Eric

How do you think we would be impacted if the earth's rotation was faster? In other words, what if it only took an hour for a single rotation instead of 24 hours?

Super serious, long-term answer: If we evolved under those conditions, I'd suspect that we would be more inclined to stay awake through multiple "days," and we might not have evolved to sleep at all. I say this because it would be too easy (ie: too likely) that we as a species would gain a competitive advantage at some point by doing this. Then again, we might not have evolved into what we are now under those circumstances, so it's hard to say.

Shorter-term answer: If we suddenly started having 1-hour days instead of 24-hour days without any other measurable difference, then I think we would probably keep the same calendar and just call each rotation an hour and have 24 rotations be a day to adapt it to the calendar we already have. I think we already have all of the technology available now that we would need to keep public areas lighted.

I'm having a hard time coming up with anything interesting on this one. Sorry lol