Heh, from xkcd's what-if site ...
Posted by
Beryllium (aka grayman)
Jan 25 '13, 15:22
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In the first Superman movie, Superman flies around Earth so fast that it begins turning in the opposite direction. This somehow turns back time [... ] How much energy would someone flying around the Earth have to exert in order to reverse the Earth's rotation?
�Aidan Blake
Someone recently blew my mind by telling me I�d been misinterpreting that scene all my life. I like their take on it way better:
Superman wasn't exerting a force on the Earth. He was just flying fast enough to go back in time. (Faster than light, I guess? Comic book physics.) The Earth changed direction because we were watching time run backward as he traveled. It didn't actually have anything to do with the direction he was flying.
Now that I see it, it makes a lot more sense. I mean, as much sense as a red-cape-and-outside-underwear time traveler can make.
A discussion of the reversal of the Earth�s spin�and what that even means�will have to wait for another article.
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