If you shot a ball straight up in the air..

S

ShartShooter

Veteran XX
and it were high enough, could it come down in a different spot due to the rotation of the earth? This is assuming it is perfectly straight, went high enough and outside forces like wind, weather, etc. wouldn't affect its trajectory, speed, etc.

P.S. I checked with Jemele Hill and she didn't know.
 
if there are absolutely no outside forces the ball will always come straight back down from where it was launched. The ball has the same angular velocity as the earth so all you are adding is the vertical component.
 
no.. if this was the case, the ball would land a couple of hundred meters away every time you throw it up in the air
 
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Ok but if you had one of those globes you'd find in a classroom and were somehow able to make it have the same gravitational properties of earth (to scale obviously) and you mounted a little cannon and shot a gumball out of it straight up (again assuming no outside forces) and while you were doing it, spun it.. wouldn't the gumball come down and land away from the cannon as the cannon was spinning around?
 
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SharpShooter said:
Ok but if you had one of those globes you'd find in a classroom and were somehow able to make it have the same gravitational properties of earth (to scale obviously) and you mounted a little cannon and shot a gumball out of it straight up (again assuming no outside forces) and while you were doing it, spun it.. wouldn't the gumball come down and land away from the cannon as the cannon was spinning around?
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if you spun it AFTER the gumball has been launched then of course. In the real world, when you throw a ball straight up, god doesn't spin the earth faster, sorry.
 
Just like ICBMs, jets, weather balloons, etc. yes the earth's rotation would come into play and cause it to land in a different spot.

Edit: I challenge my previous statement with a body in motion tends to stay in motion. Therefore I've stumped myself
 
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SharpShooter said:
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scoreboard....
 
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