Question:

Suppose the Earth did not rotate, and one side always faced the Sun.?

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a. Describe the winds and pressures at the surface.

b. Describe the winds and pressures about 10 kilometers above the surface.

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9 ANSWERS


  1. we'd all fall off


  2. Well.

    That's not enough information.

    A) Which Side.

    B) No one would know the pressure >.>

  3. wed all fall off and freeze in space

  4. This cannot happen .Both conditions are contradictory.You have said that the earth is not rotating about its axis.You have not mentioned anything  about the revolution around the sun.So I assume it is going around the sun.In such a condition,if one side of the face is always facing the sun,then it automatically rotates about its axis once a year.That means the duration of its revolution about the sun and its rotation about its axis both will be the same and will be equal to one year.This is a case similar to that of the moon.One side of the moon is always facing the earth and because of this its revolution around the earth and its rotation about its axis take the same time which is equal to approximately 28 days.

    If one side of the earrh is always facing the sun ,that side will be very hot and the other side will be very colder.Accordingly weather conditions may change.It would be very difficult to tell what changes would occur.

  5. a. really bad

    b. really badder

  6. All the resources such as trees, grass, etc. would burn up. It would be some what like Mars. It would be windy and dusty!!!

  7. If the earth didn't rotate, then there'd be no Coriolis force; this means that air would flow straight from high pressure to low pressure.

    This would be kind of like the moon if it had an atmosphere.  The same side of the moon always faces the earth because its mass is not centered so gravity makes it face the earth the same way.  With what you are asking, the earth would be like that, but the gravity issue would be with the sun since the sun is what we revolve around.

    The side that always faced the sun obviously would get very hot and the opposite side very cold.  With hotter temps, surface pressures would be low at the surface on the sunny side, and high on the shaded side.  Wind would flow straight from the shaded side to the sunny/warmer side.  This is how the earth would try and equalize its temperature.  The air would converge at the center of the low pressure (where it's hottest) and rise high up into the atmosphere.

    The atmosphere is 'thicker' where it's very hot and shallower where it's very cold.  In the real atmosphere, the top of the troposphere (the layer closest to the surface where all the weather happens) is actually much lower near the poles than the height around the equator.  What this means is that high up in the atmosphere, the pressure is higher where it's hot/sunny than at the equivalent height where it's shaded/cold.  So the pressure 10km up is higher on the sunny side than it is on the shady side (Yes, it's opposite of what is going on at the surface).

    So as the hot air on the sunny side has converged and risen aloft, it ends up 'diverging,' or flowing away from this spot.  At 10km, it's going to flow towards the shady side.  Again, there's no Coriolis force to turn it; instead it will flow directly to the shady side where it will converge at that altitude, and then sink towards the surface around the coldest part.  So it will resemble a huge closed circulation pattern.

  8. then we will freeze and die

  9. is this a non-rotating earth? or a tidal-locked earth? I need more information in order to answer this question.

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