If we all start walking west all at once could we change the direction earth spins?

[brainbomb]

I was thinking if everyone worldwide just started walking west we could change how earth spins and cause the wildfire smoke to stop blowing east.

[Esquire Bertissimmo]

The mass of all humans combined is extremely small compared to the mass of the Earth. The Earth has a mass of about 5.97 x 10^24 kilograms, whereas the total mass of all humans on Earth (assuming a world population of 7.9 billion and an average human weight of 62 kilograms) is roughly 4.9 x 10^11 kilograms. That means mass of all humans is roughly 8.2 x 10^-14 times the mass of the Earth.

If all humans were to walk in a direction counter to the Earth's rotation, the effect on the Earth's rotation would be virtually nonexistent. This is because the momentum transferred from humans to the Earth by walking would be extremely small compared to the Earth's angular momentum.

Even in hypothetical situations where all the humans were somehow able to coordinate their movements perfectly, and where they could somehow exert force against the Earth without the equal and opposite reaction from the Earth cancelling out their efforts (which violates Newton's third law of motion), the effect on the Earth's rotation would still be infinitesimally small due to the massive disparity in mass.

[brainbomb]

This is super informative and thank you.

[Hanging Rook]

By the way if your idea was that all humans together would sort of push the earth back (moving it in the opposite direction of your walking direction), note that the earth is already spinning from west to east, so by walking west according to this logic you would make it faster and not stop it or change direction, anyway.

[Octavious]

I was thinking if everyone worldwide just started walking west we could change how earth spins and cause the wildfire smoke to stop blowing east.

You're thinking about it the wrong way. You need an atmospheric solution rather than a geological one. If we all converted to Islam and adopted a bean and cabbage based vegan diet we might be on to something

[Ginge86]

I was thinking if everyone worldwide just started walking west we could change how earth spins and cause the wildfire smoke to stop blowing east.

You're thinking about it the wrong way. You need an atmospheric solution rather than a geological one. If we all converted to Islam and adopted a bean and cabbage based vegan diet we might be on to something

Best response EVER!