Suppose the ice caps at the South and North poles melted due to the global warming and the water was distributed uniformly over the earth's oceans. Would the earth angular velocity increase, decrease, or remain the same? Would each day get shorted or longer as compared to the current days? Explain.

Question

Leo

Physics

14 January, 13:00

Suppose the ice caps at the South and North poles melted due to the global warming and the water was distributed uniformly over the earth's oceans. Would the earth angular velocity increase, decrease, or remain the same? Would each day get shorted or longer as compared to the current days? Explain.

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Answers (1)

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Lillie Odom · Answer 1

The Earth rotates about its axis once a day. Instead, the rate of rotation varies by up to a millisecond per day. The speed of the Earth's rotation will increase if its mass is brought closer to its axis of rotation, that is net movement of mass. Conversely, the speed of the Earth's rotation will decrease if its mass is moved away from the rotation axis.

Yes the days would be longer. Since the ice that was at the South Pole is now distributed around the world, there is a change in the distribution of mass.