Travelling westward vs Earth rotation W to E

[al_madhi]

Hi , guys I am just curious , I remember when I used to travel a lot from the gulf area middel east to N.Y. USA in the 1980s across Europe and the Atlantic ocean , every time the pilot tell passengers that we are travelling against the winds ( commercial winds blow from west to east ) and it will take longer time to reach destination , and fuel consumption, it took 13 & 1/2 hours non-stop to reach N.Y. from the gulf. And in the way back the plane is travelling with the wind which push the plane eastwards , it took only 12 hours to reach the gulf from N.Y. Regarding the above my curiosity is this as the the plane is travelling westwards Earth is moving in the oppsite direction of the plane ( Earth rotates from West to East ) . But the plane is still in the atmosphere at 40 thaousands ft above the ground and it will move with the Earth in the same time from west to east against its travel from east to west during more than half a day ( 13 & 1/2 hours ) journey . Do you consider this another factor against the travel of the plane the same as the commercial winds which blow in the oppsite direction of the plane's travel .

Any thoughts you would have be greatly appreciated .

cheers

 

[TuxCoder]

I think "train A" out of Chicago will arrive at Peoria before the other train reaches its destination.

Anyways, that's pretty deep stuff. I think since the atmosphere is rotating with the Earth (as you mentioned), it doesn't really affect east-west/west-east travel.

 

[Neutron]

It wouldn't affect it anyway, because no commercial jet can travel faster than the Earth's rotation speed.

 

[John W]

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/phy00/phy00385.htm

http://www.calacademy.org/products/pendulum/page12.htm

 

[al_madhi]

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/phy00/phy00385.htm

http://www.calacademy.org/products/pendulum/page12.htm

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To - John Walsh thanks for reply

ref: to {URL=http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/ph00/ph00385.htm}

Have read the last three lines in the article written by Alcir Grohmann Beschaffung SAM .
" The Rotation of Earth is the most important and you can say that travelling from East to Westthe Airplane will reach its airport sooner than the contrary.

As atmosphere rotates with the Earth and Earth rotates from West to East then travelling from East to West the Airplane will reach its airport late not sooner because the Airplane travelling in the oppsite direction of the atmosphere which rotate from West to East ..
please your comment about that .

cheers .

 

[cdru]

I think he mistyped and meant to say traveling West to East. Tailwinds (or headwinds) are predominantly west to east, so heading east will usually take less time then heading west.

Here is another page that I thought made things a little easier to understand. Bottom line is that the earth's rotation is pretty much fixed with that of the atmosphere so the rotation has nothing to do with travel speed/time. It's all in the winds.

 

[John W]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To - John Walsh thanks for reply

ref: to {URL=http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/ph00/ph00385.htm}

Have read the last three lines in the article written by Alcir Grohmann Beschaffung SAM .
" The Rotation of Earth is the most important and you can say that travelling from East to Westthe Airplane will reach its airport sooner than the contrary.

As atmosphere rotates with the Earth and Earth rotates from West to East then travelling from East to West the Airplane will reach its airport late not sooner because the Airplane travelling in the oppsite direction of the atmosphere which rotate from West to East ..
please your comment about that .

cheers .

If you take away the atmosphere and imagine that the earth is in a vacuum then you would get there sooner traveling east to west. Now add the atmosphere which generally runs from west to east and that will slow down your eastward travel quite a bit.

If these kind of things interest you then you may enjoy reading the book "The Elegant Universe" by Brian Greene. It has nothing to do with the atmosphere but very interesting concepts regarding relativity.

 

[Foxbat]

It wouldn't affect it anyway, because no commercial jet can travel faster than the Earth's rotation speed.

Not any more, no.

Adieu, Concorde...