Warming and Slowing the World

chrisleonard writes "We all know that global warming is supposed to heat the planet up, but did you know that it might also slow it down? According to a report from Belgium's Royal Observatory (as reported here by astronomy.com), if the days seem a little longer to you than they used to, it might not be just old age catching up with you. Would it be wrong to call the interaction of the world's warming temperatures and its slowing rotation ... a snowball effect?"

Comments

Ok, some quick math.

[Restil]

1/10000 of a second every century we shall slow down.

This means, that to gain ONE SECOND of our preciously short day, we will have to wait 1 MILLION years. This means, that by the time the
sun explodes, our day will be approximately 83 minutes longer. I'm sorry if I choose not to get excited about this.

In retrospect, the earth's rotation is slowing due to other factors, primarily tidal forces from the moon at a rate of 22 seconds every million years. It will eventually slow to the point where it takes one month to make a complete revolution, in perfect tidal lock with the moon. Or at least it would, although its still unlikely to make it before the sun goes.

Either way, I don't plan to lose any sleep over it. Of all the scares from global warming, this is one of the least disconcerting.

-Restil

Re:11 microseconds per decade?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's right. The length of the day increasing by 11us per decade is insignificant compared to the 2 milliseconds per century = 200us per decade increase due to the interaction with the Moon.

Also, cnn had the story 4 days ago.