If every human and elephant (6.5 billion) pushed on the left side of a building.......?

Question

Would the world spin a bit faster?

Answer 1

lmao no because of a little things called the laws of physics

Answer 2

The building would collapse in a min!! :D he he

Answer 3

no because:

it would have to be a v big building

your standing on somthing ur trying to push

and the worlds really heavy!

Answer 4

Probably knock us out of the universe lol! :)  Similar to scene from speed (1st one) where they all get to one side of the bus so it doesn't topple over going round the bend (sounds a bit like me lol!)

Answer 5

Newtons third law states every action has an equal and opposite reaction - therefore the pushing on the building would be equal and opposite to the feet pushing against the floor - result no movement of the earth. the building might fall down though!

Answer 6

No, because they would be standing on the floor that is also part of the earth that is turning :) also you wouldnt be able to fit them against 1 building lol

Answer 7

Yes, because the world turns to the left.

Answer 8

This is a variation on the old physics question - "What if all the Chinese people jumped off of chairs at the same moment, what would happen?"

(See link below for answer)

What you need to consider is Newton's laws of physics.  For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  Even if you could get every man, woman, child and elephant to agree on which side of a building to push on (impossible, since not every building is oriented the same way), and even if you could get them to push at the exact same time (again, impossible, based on the level of coordination necessary)

for all the pushing involved, there would be resistance.

And even if you could get all those people and animals to push at the same time, most building foundations only go a few feet into the ground, so there's no way you could effect the overall mass or spin of the earth.  Any effect would be local and negligible.