if the world stopped spinning on its axis but still rotated around the sun - what would our weather be like?
596396
if it stopped spinning then only one part of the world would ever get sun on half stuck in day one stuck in night and that would also probably cause severe weather changes
813348
No one is really sure yet. Astronomers and meteorologists are working everyday to figure out what is going to happen but the only theory is that....\n1- The earth stops rotations and can cause us to die\n2- The earth can get compressed into a small cubical.\n3- Nothing at all and we still live... which i hope is this.
685652
Because it is not actually rising and setting, the earth is spinning in circles, causing one side of earth to lose view of the sun "night" and one side is in view of the sun "day"
559137
1. If the Earth's rotation INSTANTLY stopped, everything not fixed to the Earth would continue to rotate around at the same velocity that they were before due to conservation of momentum. To us it would feel like a giant earthquake where the Earth would suddenly start "moving" in the opposite direction of the rotation. Buildings would collapse, the oceans would wash up onto land in large tidal waves, and there would be a large atmospheric wind shear at the surface. (The atmosphere is not attached to the planet either and would keep rotating too). Since we are traveling at about 460 m/s at the equator (about 1000 miles per hour) we would be tossed pretty far. (We wouldn't fly off the earth, though. Escape velocity is much higher.) As my officemate said when I told him about this question "We would be thrown into the wall at 1.5 times the speed of sound as the building was tipped off its foundation." \n\n2. Seismic waves from the impact would travel through the earth causing massive earthquakes. Depending on the size and velocity of the impactor, the earth might even break apart. \n\n3. Much of the atmosphere would be boiled off. A fireball would expand outward destroying material in it's path and polluting the rest of the atmosphere. \n\nThose things would probably kill all life and level everything on the Earth's surface! It would be much worse than the extinction event that may have contributed to dinosaur extinction. \n\nIf we were magically able to stop the Earth with no bad consequences, life on a non-rotating or retrograde (backwards) rotating planet would be very strange. \n\n* On a retrograde rotating planet, the sun and all the stars would rise in the west and set in the east. \n\n* If the rotation was very slow, the day could be very long. This would have a huge effect on plant and animal life on the earth, some of which could not survive many days with no sunlight. \n\nIf there are any physics enthusiasts out there, from knowledge of the mass of the earth, the radius of the earth, the earth's escape velocity (use as impactor velocity), the rotation period of the earth, and the average density of the earth you can calculate a very rough estimate of the size of an impactor needed to stop the earth's rotation. If I assume that the earth collides with an object just sitting in its orbit right at the edge at the equator I get a rough radius of 1600 km for the needed size. In reality, you would probably need something much, much bigger. There are not any objects of this size in the solar system that we don't know about, which means that this scenario can't really happen.
260369
No but it would affect existence on the planet! There is a delicate balance to be maintained and if polar ice caps melted, this balance would be tipped over.  You can certainly expect weird weather.
52855
It has to do with the direction the earth rotates on its axis. It rotates once every 24 hours. So, the direction it spins is the direction the sun passes by. The earth would have to completely stop and start to rotate in the opposite direction in order for the sun to rise in the west and set in the east. Hopefully that won't happen any time soon, because it would probably mess gravity all up.
356220
Depends on your point of view. If you're hovering above the North pole, the earth rotates counter-clockwise. If you're hovering above the South pole, it rotates clockwise.
182304
great question - I wish I knew more but tides would be different. Also - the day would be shorter. The equatorial regions would be hotter, and the regions further away would be colder. The earth's rotation would be more stable with less wobble.
283486
to imagine it, it would be very difficult. I suggest you experiment on it. Try using 3 ball, one for the sun, one for the earth, and another for the moon. Now do hte things you think. \nBut for me, the earth spins on its axis east to west and revolves the sun at east to west direction. EWhile the moon also revolves the earth at an east to west direction.
619864
If you were to view the Earth from above the North Pole, it will be rotating in an anticlockwise direction (i.e. West to East).\n\nEarth rotates about an axis, where 1 rotation equates to 24 hours (1 day). This axis is at a tilt of 23.45 degrees from the vertical. This tilting results in the seasons.\n\nA cool "video" can be found on: http://www.ncsu.edu/scivis/lessons/earthinspace3d/earth2.html
705867
First, the Earth's Equator is tilted at 23-odd degrees to the plane of its orbit; second, the Earth is slightly flattened at the poles; and third, the Earth is spinning.  These have no effect around the time of the equinoxes.  However, at the solstices, the gradient of the Sun's gravitational field across the Earth's diameter causes the daytime equatorial bulge to be attracted more strongly than the nighttime equatorial bulge, so there is a torque apparently trying to pull the spin axis more upright relative to the orbit.  But, like a spinning top, angular momentum means that the effect is to push it sideways instead.  The tilt stays at 23-odd degrees, but the axis "precesses" and describes a great cone in a period of about 26,000 years.
57004
The Earth would lose sea tides and other water tides.  This would mean the sea receding in some parts of the world and flooding in other parts.  I also think that the Earth will "wobble" on its axis and its path of revolution around the sun would change.  That would mean change in the duration of the day and the year, I guess that would mean toal destruction.
1105296
Earth is rotating at a speed of about 1100 miles per hour. If our planet suddenly stopped rotating, the atmosphere would still be in motion at that speed. The atmosphere would be moving so fast it would literally sweep the land masses clear of anything not anchored to bedrock, this would mean rocks, soil, trees, buildings, people and animals. All would be swept up into the atmosphere.\n\nIf the Earth's rotation slowed down gradually over millions of years, and this is the most likely scenario, it would be a very different story. If the Earth slowed down to one rotation every year, called synchronous rotation, every area on Earth would be in either sunlight or darkness for one year. This would be similar to what the Moon goes through where for two weeks the front side of the Moon is illuminated by the Sun followed by the front side being in darkness for two weeks.\n\nBut what if the Earth stopped rotating completely? In that case, one half the Earth would be in daylight for half the year while the other side would be in darkness. The second half of the year it would be reversed. Temperature variations would be far more extreme then they are now. The temperature gradient would affect the wind circulation also. Air would move from the equator to the poles rather then in wind systems parallel to the equator as they are now.
119438
A wide variety of wierd things would happen.  For one temperatures would increase more and decrease to lower values on the sunlit and shaded sides of the world.  Ocean currents and weather patterns would change dramatically.  Winds would blow directly toward the equator in both the southern and northern hemispheres.  Large circular currents called gyres which exist in all ocean basins would dissapear.  The tides would also be much different because the earth's rotation strongly influences tidal characteristics.
63465
For one thing, it takes the earth 24 hours to complete one full rotation, and the earth has circumference of roughly 24,000 miles, which means the speed of its rotation is appx. 1000 mph...\n\nSo if we did not have a protective atmosphere as we do, winds could be up to 1000 mph. Fortunately we do, so the winds we do experience are usually negligible...
750556
While the question/answer below is about weather, the information is the same for just wind.\n\nQ: Why does most of our weather come from the west if the Earth is rotating the opposite way?\n\nA: When looking down at the North Pole, the Earth spins counterclockwise around its axis. A point on the equator travels at about 1,100 mph, while a point directly at the poles does not move at all. An apparent force called the Coriolis force results from this difference in speeds, deflecting objects to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. The Coriolis force, combined with solar heating patterns across the Earth, create distinctive wind patterns that drive weather systems.\n\nOne prevailing surface wind pattern that results is located in the mid-latitudes, between 30 and 60° North. Solar heating alone, without the Earth's rotation, would produce prevailing southerly winds. The Coriolis force, however, deflects these winds to the right, creating prevailing winds out of the west and southwest (the westerlies). \n\nSolar heating patterns in the tropics, from the equator to about 30° North, combined with the Coriolis force, produce weak prevailing winds out of the east (the easterlies). Southern regions of the USA, including Florida, are affected by the westerlies at times and the easterlies at others."\n\nHope this helps explain it. Check the first link for other weather questions and second link to see a full explanation of the consequences of rotation on weather. \n\nSource(s):\nhttp://www.usatoday.com/weather/resource...\nhttp://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/...
316427
None specifically. \n\nAll celestial bodies rotate.  The earth is no different.