Can you ravel round the world faster by going the same direction that the planet is moving?

Question

If you were to circle the world in a plane, would you get back to the start faster if you travelled in the same direction that the planet is spinning?

Answer 1

Well its like this when you are walking or driving the same direction the planet is moving do you move faster. The answer is no. The same applies to an airplane. The reason is gravety, the gravetaional pull is the same nomatter the dircetion you are moving. So if you can decrease the gravitational pull then you have a chance. Other wise get a really big motor.  

Answer 2

Travel with the prevailing winds and take Coriolis into effect.  Both are more important factors.

Answer 3

Yes.  The prevailing winds are from west to east which means that you'd pick up a tail wind which would definitely shorten your flight. Amelia knew this, but definitely could not navigate very well.

Answer 4

When you walk on the earth, you speed doesn't change with the direction right? Because the rotation of the earth only matters when you view your motion from the space. From space, it's like a trademill: When traveling the opposite direction you seem to stay where you are.  However that's not the case here. Because when you travel with an airplane you are still under the gravitational effect of the earth. If you just stay up there and don't move you don't see the earth moving beneath you because you are moving with it (unless you go really really high). In order to go in different directions you just need to change your position on the surface not with respect to your position in space. So you can as well imagine that the earth is not rotating or is rotating faster and you would still get the same effect. So no it doesn't matter in what direction you move, just like when traveling on the surface; but in terms of the prevailing winds  I don't know.

Answer 5

no, quite the opposite, go the other direction and your speed plus the speed of the earth's rotation will add up to double the effective speed towards your destination

Answer 6

If people giong from west to east would just lift their feet or take small hops they could travel faster.