https://xkcd.com/2882/

Alt text:

For decades I’ve been working off the accumulated rotation from one long afternoon on a merry-go-round when I was eight.

      • spujb@lemmy.cafe
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        5 months ago

        holy shit i do this string thing and i get stressed if i get too many winds around a place i don’t like

    • EmoDuck@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      5 months ago

      I don’t have OCD but I definitely have this spinning thing. The worst thing is when you’re unsure if you are short a spin or not, it’s like having a sneeze stuck that won’t come out

  • rtxn@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    47
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    We should all start spinning counterclockwise in the north and clockwise in the south to affect the planet’s rotation and create a massive westward tidal wave that will finally take care of Florida.

  • Aceticon@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    Ultimatelly it depends on the distribution of the Human population all over the World.

    It’s fine to not to offset your rotations at the end of the day if there are people on the other side of the World in average rotating about the same as you do and who thus offset you rotations with their own.

    Also if some people around you tend to accumulate clockwise rotations and others counter-clockwise ones, it’s all fine as you’re offsetting each other and ditto if your personal accumulation of rotation for each day has an equal chance to being clockwise as it has of being counter-clockwise since you’re offsetting yourself over time (granted, if not in the equator you’ve made days a little longer or a little shorter in between, but all in all it’s fine).

    • Thisfox@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      5 months ago

      New reason for us to have a keep-left policy on our roads while yanks have a keep-right policy on theirs…

  • marcos@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    5 months ago

    That’s why you should only go to those larger merry-go-rounds where everything rotates in one direction and your immediate region rotates on the other.

    • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      5 months ago

      Three rights make a left. It’s entirely possible to have an unbalanced ratio of left to right rotations in a day

      • palordrolap@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        5 months ago

        Triangular grid guy: “Guess I’m going back the way I came.”

        Hexagonal grid guy: “What is left. What is right. This did nothing! Nothing!”

        Guy on Penrose tiling: “Get me out of here!”

        (In before: “You have the first two the wrong way around.” Not if they’re walking the edges.)

    • Thisfox@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      5 months ago

      If you are doing that by car, then the cloverleaf will add to your spin, not cancel it out.

    • marcos@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      5 months ago

      Yes, we would affect the Earth’s rotation. It’s just by a ridiculously small amount that nobody would ever be able to measure.

        • Aceticon@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          edit-2
          5 months ago

          The mass of the Earth is 5.972 × 1024, so you would need 5.972 × 1020 humans of 100 Kg each all turning in the same direction to make the Earth rotate 1% the other way (so about 597,200,000 trillion humans).

          PS: I might be slightly wrong here as rotations have to do with angular momentum which is a bit more complicated than the linear kind because rotational inertia doesn’t depende on mass alone, but the law of conservation of angular momentum does apply.

          • m0darn@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            I was going to say a similar thing, how are you going to get gone without canceling it out.

            But also if you walked away from the equator then walked until you were directly north/ south of your home before walking home, some effect would remain.

            • MySkinIsFallingOff@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              5 months ago

              I don’t believe that to be correct, but I’m to stupid to refute you. So I’ll take it as facts. Thank you for enlightening me.

              • m0darn@lemmy.ca
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                5 months ago

                It’s because your return journey is closer to the axis of the earth so your action has less torque.