How fast does the Day/night line move across the surface of the planet?

Posted on October 26th, 2009 by admin in faster than the speed of night |

Speed at equator and Britain’s latitude.

And what’s it called?
So at a bit over mach 3 we can outrun the terminator? coolness.

Earth’s equatorial radius is 6378 km, so…
Earth circumference is 2Pi(r) = 40,054 km
Speed = distance/time = 40,054/24 hrs = 1669 km/hr
All points along the equator move at this velocity…

London is at about 51 degrees N latitude
The distance to the axis of earth’s rotation would be…
6378 cos 51 = 4014 km
Do as above and you get 1050 km/hr

Its called the Terminator….

3 Responses

  1. spot a Says:
    October 26th, 2009 at 6:06 pm

    It travels around the earth in 24 hours. Circumference of the earth at the equator is 40075.16 The speed at the equator = 1,669.7983 kph
    References :
    http://geography.about.com/library/faq/blqzcircumference.htm

  2. Mallard Says:
    October 26th, 2009 at 6:56 pm

    At the equator the "terminator" moves at about 1,037 mph.

    To compute the *tangential* velocity at different latitudes use this formula C=2 x Pi x R x Cos((Pi x
    >L)/180)
    References :

  3. djh1960 Says:
    October 26th, 2009 at 7:39 pm

    Earth’s equatorial radius is 6378 km, so…
    Earth circumference is 2Pi(r) = 40,054 km
    Speed = distance/time = 40,054/24 hrs = 1669 km/hr
    All points along the equator move at this velocity…

    London is at about 51 degrees N latitude
    The distance to the axis of earth’s rotation would be…
    6378 cos 51 = 4014 km
    Do as above and you get 1050 km/hr

    Its called the Terminator….
    References :

Leave a Comment

Please note: Comment moderation is enabled and may delay your comment. There is no need to resubmit your comment.

|