Earth's Gravity On Its Surface?

Question

I was just wondering. When an object spins it tends to fling any objects on its surface outward (like one of those round ufo rides at a fair) so would the spin of Earth act as a pull against its own gravity (even if only slightly). Just curious.

Answer 1

The first guy is probably right!

Answer 2

Yes it does. But the effect is less than 1% at the equator and gets less as less as you go toward the pole where it is zero. If Earth rotated once in 90 minutes instead of 24 hours, that would be fast enough to make things at the equator weightless. Any faster and things would be thrown off the surface at the equator by the centrifugal force. That puts an upper limit to how fast Earth could rotate without tearing itself apart.

Answer 3

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Answer 4

lol exactly what he said!