why do not water fall of from the beach in earth into the planetary system as the earth revolves ?
554133
The water in the sea doesn't fall due to the gravitational force of the earth which sticks everything on the surface.
338480
That is a good & interesting question.\n\nIn all logical aspects, this should occur due to the fact that everything in nature trys to balance out. This includes things like air pressure; it travels from high to low areas of pressure. In the same manner, everything that is uphill or of higher elevation trys to balance w/ those that are of lower elevation; hence erosion & drainage basins in general.\n\nIn order for this to occur, a lot of sediment would have to be washed into the drainage basin's streams & rivers. That would take a very long time.\n\nAlthough I think the answer here has to do with the fact that the earth's crust rebounds in a process called isostatic adjustment.\n\nWhen material is removed from the crust to another location, weight is taken off of an area. The crust will readjust to the former height by rising slightly.\n\nIt's just like placing several blocks of wood in a container of water. As you take off one of the blocks, the rest of them will rise in response to the reduced load.\n\nThats my answer & I'm sticking to it.\n\n:)
341419
Yes, Planets are generally spheres, not cubes or cylinders or odd shapes. Some small galactic bodies such as asteroids comets do have odd shapes, but planets, suns and stars and even moons look like spheres. That's because, when they were formed millions of years ago, they were essentially molten liquid.  Gravity and meniscus forces (surface tension) cause the object to take on a rounded shape--and it cools in that position.  In addition, the nature of gravity will pull uniformily toward the center--as the distance from the center increases, so does the gravitational force. You can think of gravity as a force that points inward toward the center of all things that have mass-- so that every part of the surface (especially liquids)is pulled evenly toward the center, resulting in a spherical shape.\n\nPlanets are not perfect spheres because there are other forces acting on the planets too which are trying to stretch them.  Because they were once hot moltent liquid, they buldge in the middle.  Earth and the moon reflect this phenomina.   Although gravity keeps planets close to spherical, there are other forces that cause deviations from the basic spherical shape. For example, the rotation of the earth once every 24 hours, causes an apparent centrifugal force which creates a bulge at the equator. In fact the earth's diameter at the equator is 7,926 miles while the diameter between the poles is only 7,900. \n\nNote that planets and moons had to be a liquid or they would not have been able to escape the gravitational force of the nearest larger body.  Remember that liquid will seek the path of least resistance as it moves.  In otherwords, an impact on the earth would cause a splash of moltent material that could escape the earth's atmosphere at the exact angle (path of least resistance) to be able to exit the planet's atmosphere without burning up.  Once it exits into space, the gravitational pull of the larger body will pull it into orbit. It will stay in orbit until it is acted upon by a larger force.   Fortunately, we haven't seen any larger forces since the earth was created and therefore, the conditions will remain for millions of years into the future.
223771
This is not true, but widely circulated as fact.\n\nI quote verbatim from snopes:\n\n"Because  \n\n   the Earth is a globe spinning on an invisible axis, a point at its equator will make a circuit of 25,000 miles in the space of a day, but any point not on the equator will make a shorter round trip; the closer that point is to either of the poles, the shorter its trip will be. Put another way, a pencil     at the equator travels 1,030 miles an hour, whereas another at Sarasota, Florida, moves at 930 miles per hour, and one at the North pole doesn't move at all. \n\n This apparent difference in speed results in the Coriolis force, an effect that imparts a twist to largish events happening away from the equator. Best known is its effect on air masses: as they move away from the equator, their speed (which matches that of where they started from) appears to be faster than that of the surface over which they are traveling. This sets them turning in a clockwise twist in the northern hemisphere and a counterclockwise twist in the southern. (Before you complain we have that backwards, please click here.)  Likewise, a cannonball fired due north will veer a teeny bit to the east, and one fired to the south will deflect ever so slightly to the west, something a skilled gunner would make an adjustment for. \n\n The twisting effect of the Coriolis force is real and does influence certain large things like the movement of air masses, but the effect is so small that it plays no role in determining the direction in which water rotates as it exits from a draining sink or toilet. The Coriolis effect produces a measurable effect over huge distances and long periods of time, neither of which applies to your bathroom. Toilets and sinks drain in the directions they do because of the way water is directed into them or pulled from them. If water enters in a swirling motion (as it does when a toilet is flushed, for example), the water will exit in that same swirling pattern; as well, most basins have irregular surfaces and are not perfectly level, factors which influence the direction in which water spirals down their drains. The configuration of taps and drains is responsible for the direction of spin given to water draining from sinks and bathtubs to a degree that overwhelms the slight influence of the Coriolis force. \n\n The belief that the Coriolis force influences the direction in which water drains from plumbing fixtures is widespread and has been repeated as fact in a number of venues, including popular television shows (such as world traveler Michael Palin's Pole to Pole) and even in textbooks.  We can only speculate on why people are so enamored of this snippet of misinformation, guessing that it has something to do with the desire to find some of the mysteries of science in the realm of the everyday. "
662166
A longish answer I picked up from the source link in reply to question 26 on the page. I'm quoting it verbatim herebelow\n\nQuote"\nBecause whatever it arose from--probably a cloud of gas and dust--was rotating to begin with.\n\nThe thing to keep in mind that even a very slow rotation of a cloud of objects gets greatly speeded up as it condenses at the center. The reason is a basic law (a consequence of Newton's laws of motion) by which a quantity known as ANGULAR MOMENTUM (or rotational momentum) is conserved. The angular momentum can be defined as the average radial distance, TIMES the average velocity of motion, TIMES the mass.\n\nThe mass does not change when matter collects near the axis of rotation, so we neglect the last part. Then, if the material collectes in the middle, where its average radius of rotation is 10, 100 or 1000 times smaller, the average velocity of its particles increases by the same factor.\n\nYou see this happen every day. When water drains from a filled bathroom sink, even if the water in the sink is rotating so slowly that you do not notice, by the time it reaches the drain it is spinning rapidly enough to form a funnel. (It does not spin in the opposite direction in Australia: the effect on which this claim is based is far too weak to have much effect. See "Stargazers," section 24). You also see this in hurricanes and tornadoes.\n\nAnd you see it happen when a large object in space collapses. In 1054 a star "went supernova" in the constellation of the Crab, a process in which the top layers blow off and the core collapses to a tiny "neutron star," perhaps 15 km across and as massive as the Sun. The collapsed core of the Crab Nebula apparently rotates 30 times a second, because that is the frequency at which it blinks in x-rays and radio (and I believe in its light, too).\n\nIn the solar system all planets orbit in the same direction and nearly in the same plane, and they and the Sun rotate in the same direction too (= counterclockwise, viewed from north). This suggests that they all condensed from the same cloud."   Unquote
237412
It could be night falls but never breaks and day breaks, but never falls.  It could also be one answer for both...  Water falls but does not break when it does and water breaks (as in waves at the beach) but does not fall in this case.
241853
Although the earth is rotating in the same direction the angle of incidence is the opposite of that in the northern hemisphere. as the earth rotates the angular momentum causes the water to spin. Think about wheels placed against the surface of the earth and angled so that their axles are pointing at the center of the planet as the earth rotates they will turn in opposite directions.
576401
From what i understand the earth will eventually leave the earth system altogether in a few hundred thousand years, this process is not however do to tidal drag. That force is responsible for slowing the rotation of the earth (and other planets) What most people don't understand is that the moon acts as a stabilizer for the earth. they degree of axial tilt would vary wildly. the equator may wind up as the north pole and go back again. planets without moons all experience this extreme wobble effect.
1066805
It is in such exact balance because of the way it was created over many 100 million years before the earth and other planets even existed.  The dust which later came to be the solar system was attached to each other by gravitational forces, and the dust cloud started spinning because it had some directional speed and "missed" the center of the point of what was later to become the center of the solar system.  As more dust was collected and the cloud got bigger the entire system ended up as a giant spinning disc which was prevented from falling into itself by centrifugal forces.  As even more dust is collected the majority is collected at the center of gravity like water spinning down the drain to create sufficient mass to become the sun, and the dust which did not reach the center of the spinning disc create local maximums, and eventually collapsed under gravitational forces into planet -- each planet inheriting some of the spinning nature of all the material they were made up of and hence were spinning on their own, which still maintaining a circular orbit around the center of the spinning disc which is now the sun .....\n\nGravitational and centrifugal forces is more than sufficient to explain both how the hole thing can into existence as well as how it maintains stability -- electromagnetism, while being a great force, only works on near sub-atomic particles -- at least it does not work long distance, as well as the power is just not there to create anything which would cause a cont ant field to explain anything.
27398
You can observe this yourself by breathing on a mirror. As the condensation evaporates from the mirror, you have completed the water cycle. Water evaporates into the atmosphere from the ocean, lakes, rivers, and from soil and plants, and even from your skin and breath. When the air reaches saturation (100% humidity) due to cooling or changes in atmospheric pressure (or both) the water condenses  from vapor to liquid (or solid) and falls to earth as rain, snow, sleet, hail, or maybe only as dew. This water may then form streams and rivers and return to the ocean where it may evaporate again into the atmosphere or it may sink into the earth where it becomes groundwater that may take many thousands of years to emerge again, or may be pumped to the surface from a well and used for drinking water or irrigation. It is a continuous cycle that may take only seconds or may take thousands of years to complete the cycle depending on the path of the water.   \n\nWhy do I get the feeling I'm answering your homework question? Now if you'd asked about delta O18 (a heavy isotope of oxygen) I could have told you how the water cycle concentrates water composed of hydrogen and heavy oxygen atoms and how this is used to study paleoclimates using ice cores and sea shells. Have a good day.
43764
Tides happen in the atmosphere, and even in the ground itself. We can easily measure them with instruments. The solid earth tide is actually quite substantial, but it is still small enough and slow enough that we do not notice it usually. \n\nThere are definitely tides in lakes and in rivers too. Why would there not be ? \n\nIt should be noted that the tides are NOT because the water is attracted to the sun and moon. Tides are because the gravity field from extraterrestrial bodies (including other planets, not just the sun and the moon) is not constant. On one side of the earth, the force on the water is greater than it is on the earth, so the water gets pulled away from the earth. On the other side of the earth, the force on the water is less than it is on the earth, so the water gets left behind in a pile as the earth gets pulled away from the water. \n\nThis is why there are usually 2 tides per day, although it should also be noted that due to resonance effects, there are places with no tides, places with 1 tide per day, and places with more than 2 tides per day.
232284
The waters of the oceans are pulled downwards by gravity; they flow around the planet in currents.  The continents shift and drift and the water flows into the spaces left.  The moon's gravity pulls the water and creates tides.  The waters of our little planet are in constant motion.
826959
The basic answer to that is:\nAs water falls on land and runs into the oceans it picks up minerals.\nWhen it gets to the ocean the minerals get mixed into the ocean water.\nSunlight causes the water to evaporate but leaves the minerals behind.\nThe water then falls on land again repeating the process.\nEventually the salt content in the oceans built up to where it is today. And continues to build up.
1056294
As per Physics the world would never fall from its place. It can only happen only when the Sun ceases to exist and then the whole solar system and other objects under influence of gravity by the sun would simply leave its predefined orbit and move outwards into space until it is attracted by the gravitationalpull of some other body.
57004
The Earth would lose sea tides and other water tides.  This would mean the sea receding in some parts of the world and flooding in other parts.  I also think that the Earth will "wobble" on its axis and its path of revolution around the sun would change.  That would mean change in the duration of the day and the year, I guess that would mean toal destruction.
441071
As you know, the Earth is a watery place. Estimates vary, but somewhere between 70 and 75 percent of the Earth's surface is water-covered. But water also exists in the air as water vapor and in the ground as soil moisture and in aquifers. Thanks to the water cycle (view a graphic of the water cycle) our planet's water supply is constantly moving from one place to another and from one form to another. Things would get pretty stale without the water cycle!\n\nWhen you take a look at the water around you, you see water in streams, rivers, and lakes. You see water sitting on the surface of the earth. Naturally, this water is known as "surface water." Your view of the water cycle might be that rainfall fills up the rivers and lakes. But, how would you account for the flow in rivers after weeks without rain? In fact, how would you account for the water flowing down this driveway on a day when it didn't rain? The answer is that there is more to our water supply than just surface water, there is also plenty of water beneath our feet.\n\nEven though you may only notice water on the Earth's surface, there is much more water stored in the ground than there is on the surface. In fact, some of the water you see \n\nThere is about 323 billion gallons  of surface water and about 85 billion gallons  of ground water.
357343
Wold, huh? Now how do you know for certain that it is not the sun that goes around the wold? Hah! \n\nHere is how to think about that, and it is the basis for orbital mechanics: Imagine holding a cannonball and dropping it to the ground. It will fall straight down. Now, if you add a bit of horizontal motion, the cannonball will fall a short distance away from you. Imagine now that you can throw the cannonball horizontally with a great deal of force.  It will still eventually fall to the ground, maybe 100 yards away, 200 yards, whatever, depending on how hard you threw it.  Now, if you accept the notion that the earth is a sphere, that means that the surface of the earth is ever so slightly curved and would drop away from your perceived horizontal plane at the horizon.  Now if you could throw the cannonball hard enough, as it sped away horizontally two things would happen: (1) the cannonball would begin dropping to the earth, and (2) the earth would be curving down under the cannonball and away from it.  Now if you could throw this cannonball so hard that it would get away over the horizon, so far in fact that the earth would curve away as fast as the cannonball dropped towards it, then you would be in orbit, and end up circling all the way around back to where it started, and if had been going fast enough it would keep on orbiting. Increase the speed even more so it goes farther horizontally than the earth curves away vertically underneath it and you have reached escape velocity, which would send the cannonball off into space. \n\nSo if you subsitute the sun for the earth and the earth for the cannonball you can see why the earth orbits around the sun, it's the same idea.  If the earth were travelling along its orbit at a slower speed than it is it would fall into the sun; at a higher speed and it would fly off into space.