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3:05 AM
@hippietrail I'm curious why both and (eg)
 
 
3 hours later…
6:13 AM
Only thing I can think of is that Formula one is more generic while grand-prix is specifically the races that are a part of the world championship. But that distinction probably doesn't matter.
 
6:52 AM
Does anybody know a site where I can look up and see how fast we are going? In mph or kph either is fine. I can't seem to find anything!
If anybody knows, please ping me
 
7:10 AM
there are a gazillion native mobile apps for that, just search speedometer in the app store of your choice
@GayotFow I assume this is on a mobile device?
 
7:48 AM
@ZachLipton No, I mean our speed of travel. So far I have figured 40k earth circumference divided by 24 gives 1,666 kph. But that's only a small part. Surely someone has figured all this out?
we are also on the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way and that's got to add something!
 
the common usage of the expression "how fast we are going," absent some additional modifiers, does not normally include the rotation of the planet nor the movement of parts of the galaxy :)
sounds like a question for astronomy.se though, but they're presumably going to want you to specify a frame of reference
 
 
1 hour later…
9:27 AM
@pnuts @JohanGronberg Should be and . Or even better: . Pwauwauhawuhawuhawuhaw.
-.-
 
 
1 hour later…
10:39 AM
@RoflcoptrException @hippietrail Created a Meta thread to handle the vwp tag issue:
1
Q: Clarify/Merge US Visa Waiver Program tags

JoErNanOWe currently have the following tags: us-visa-waiver-program vwp Does it make sense to synonymise vwp into us-visa-waiver-program? Are there any other VWP's that we should know about, and cover with the vwp or with their own country-vwp tag?

 
just saw it and voted :)
 
Excellent.
 
11:24 AM
@GayotFow physics.stackexchange.com/questions/4493/… a starting point? wolframalpha might have something too
 
 
4 hours later…
2:59 PM
@GayotFow The diameter of circle you're traveling on as you rotate around the earth's axis depends on your latitude. For example, if you're 5 meters from the pole, you're traveling at 31.41 meters per day, or slightly over 0.0013 km per hour.
But you of course need to specify a frame of reference.
And, if your frame of reference is the sun, the answer will depend on the time of day. If it is outside the solar system, it will depend on the time of year, too.
If my trigonometry is correct (it was never a strong point for me) you need to multiply the 40000 by the cosine of your latitude, which if you're in London is 51.5 degrees, so the cosine is around 0.6225, and the circumference is about 24900. So around 1037.5 km/h.
Earlier I typed "diameter" but probably should have typed "circumference."
In any event, this is why rocket launches tend to be close to the equator.
 
@phoog Physics mentions 600 km/s (etc), you mention 0.0013 km per hour (etc) - if this is government work I want to be paid :)
 
The earth's average orbital speed is apparently 29,800 km/s, and if you're accepting averages, you can ignore the speed attributable to the earth's rotation, partly because it's so much smaller, but mainly because it averages out: half the time you need to add the rotational speed to the orbital speed, and half the time you need to subtract it.
@pnuts I don't understand.
 
3:20 PM
Just that estimates ranging from 0.0013 to 2,160,000 kph have rather more spread than estimates generally have (though I do realise the inevitability!).
 
@pnuts the range is due to the differing frames of reference!
 
As mentioned I do realise the inevitability.
 

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