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Can an object take off at a point A on the surface of the Earth and then land after some time only to land at a different place where it initially took off (because in the mean time the Earth has rotated while it was in the air)?

Qmechanic
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Seetha Rama Raju Sanapala
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    You have to tell us exactly what you mean by "do not move". Do not move relative to what? – garyp Jul 16 '16 at 11:45
  • stay afloat, spending energy only not to fall back on to earth. – Seetha Rama Raju Sanapala Jul 16 '16 at 12:06
  • Must admit, I thought you meant: Take off at A and then land after some time only to land at a different place because in the mean time the Earth has rotated while it was in the air? – jim Jul 16 '16 at 12:09
  • Yes, exactly, @jim. You got it just right what is in my mind. The purpose is to move from place A to some other place B using earth's rotation. This problem has been nagging me for a long time with no satisfactory answer. There is some thing wrong in my logic and I want to understand that. – Seetha Rama Raju Sanapala Jul 16 '16 at 12:42
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    Possible duplicate of Earth moves how much under my feet when I jump? – John Rennie Jul 16 '16 at 13:29
  • I think the question is a duplicate of that cited by John Rennie. – sammy gerbil Jul 16 '16 at 14:02
  • FWIW, although I have no problem with the hold, especially with duplicates, I think it is perfectly clear what the OP is asking. The OP has simply not taken the fact that he will not lose his ground speed into account when he leaves the ground. The comments above demonstrate that. –  Jul 16 '16 at 16:06
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    @SeethaRamaRajuSanapala You may be interested in the following question http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/268378/ – jim Jul 16 '16 at 18:32
  • Related: http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/1193/2451 , http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/58154/2451 and links therein. – Qmechanic Jul 19 '16 at 19:03

1 Answers1

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If you were at the equator, your ground speed, due to the rotation of the Earth, is around 460 m/s (1 000 mph) so you are really moving.

Now say you jump into the air and somehow you delay your fall by 10 secs.

Will the earth have rotated a bit under you? No, because you have the same horizontal speed as you had on the ground.

This is why rockets are launched as near as possible to the equator, to add this rotational speed to their rocket engine provided speed. Nobody launches from the poles.