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Original poster

the earth rotation is slowing....

70 replies

SleepingStandingUp · 01/09/2026 00:18

days are drifting longer and longer, until they're 30 then 34 then 40 ets hours long.

would you live your life by the 24 hour clock and accept dark and light comes bad goes randomly or try to live by the sun up, day, sun down, night?

bearing in mind at some point daylight will last 24 odd hours, similarly night too.

DH think real time - sun up, sun down

aibu to think the only sanity is 24 hours makes a day, get some black out curtains for the light nights?

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Original poster
SleepingStandingUp · 01/09/2026 19:08

@MyThreeWords and some of those lower class people are just in bed without glasses so half guessing what they're typing anyway.

@TinyGingerCati think the only book I ever didn't finish was American Psycho, I'll see this through to the end for how long it'll take me ☺️

OP posts:
Original poster
SleepingStandingUp · 01/09/2026 19:04

@ncGW🩷

@MyThreeWordsim worried about letting the gorillas and cats alone together with glue....

@BasildonBonds🩷

OP posts:
Jellycatspyjamas · 01/09/2026 10:49

Francestein · 01/09/2026 00:21

Firstly, workplaces already expect you to be contactable 24/7, so no change except for how you phrase it. 40/10?
Then gravity probably wouldn’t work if that happened so we’d have all floated off or evolved into heavier creatures. Actually, wait…. That may just be happening anyway.

Mine doesn’t, and I wouldn’t agree to it however you phrased it.

WecanbeheroeslikeBowie · 01/09/2026 10:40

Tiltedd · 01/09/2026 07:08

As a rule I don’t tend to take advice about end of the world events from people who can’t use the correct ‘there, their they’re’

Pedantic corner is over there love.

GasPanic · 01/09/2026 10:36

What I want to know is what's Burnham doing about it.

bjorni9 · 01/09/2026 10:33

SleepingStandingUp · 01/09/2026 09:47

it wouldn't kill us off immediately. the weather, crop failures, it all takes time

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No I mean by the time this happens 😅

WecanbeheroeslikeBowie · 01/09/2026 10:31

It's interesting concept but not happening in our live times.
But having said that, some people will read this and start panic buying loo roll, pasta and passata next. 😆

MyThreeWords · 01/09/2026 10:26

I wonder if the people who fuss about grammar and spelling on an informal chat forum also pick people up for not speaking in complete sentences (etc.) in the pub.

Spoken language is often very elliptical and gestural. Now that written language has escaped from relatively formal contexts and into the world of real-time talk, it's reasonable to allow equivalent types of leeway for typed chat.

ETA: the grammar/spelling fussing reminds me of the old-fashioned class resonances of fussing about 'correct' cutlery, etc. Snobs used cutlery rules to enforce their superiority over 'less educated 'lower-class people'; some of the 'lower-class people' used them to become upwardly mobile; but the most socially secure people didn't give two hoots about them

TinyGingerCat · 01/09/2026 10:26

OP that book is rubbish - the science is wrong in a lot of places and she completely misses all the stuff about flooding that would happen as the bulges at the equator flatten out. Do yourself a favour and don’t waste any more of your time reading it. Life’s too short to read shit books.

BasildonBonds · 01/09/2026 10:17

Tiltedd · 01/09/2026 08:55

Maybe you should read her second post again. I’ve helpfully added a screenshot. Her second word is the wrong ‘there’

happy to help

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Wrong again!

OP has used "there" correctly as she is clearly meaning "in some parts of the world" as referred to in the post she has responded to.
You have misread it.

MyThreeWords · 01/09/2026 10:17

I like the fact that the post about gorilla glue came right after the post about dreaming cats. It made it seem like gorillas would literally have something to do with the day-length fix. Either by applying the glue themselves or by just holding the Moon in place. They are very strong so this might work.

RedTagAlan · 01/09/2026 10:14

SleepingStandingUp · 01/09/2026 10:06

my error was in assuming it was clearly a hypothetical, thought experiment type post....

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It is happening. Very slow.

NASA have studied it

Earth's Time Machine: The Slowdown in Our Planet’s Spin - NASA Space News

Days are longer now by 22.5 hours than they were 650 million years ago.

Earth’s Time Machine: The Slowdown in Our Planet’s Spin

Earth's Time Machine: The Slowdown in Our Planet’s Spin - NASA Space News

For millions of years, Earth has been on a cosmic spin cycle, but recent research reveals something surprising—our planet's rotation isn’t as smooth as we

https://nasaspacenews.com/2024/08/earths-time-machine-the-slowdown-in-our-planets-spin/

ncGW · 01/09/2026 10:10

I'm trying to decide if you're confused about science, overthinking a real thing, or looking for entertainment raising a sci-fi story.

  • day getting longer. Wikipedia (quoted by AI. I'm not breaking a sweat for this) says the earth's rotation slows by 1 or 2 ms every century. So when Neanderthals lived in Europe and Britain was under an ice sheet, (about 300 centuries), the day lasted about 23hours 59minutes 59 seconds 400ms. I don't think you'd know the difference if you time traveled. For your children (well, their children's children's (repeat x 1000) children), it will last an extra half-second or so. I don't think it's a top priority problem.
  • It's also the same basic movements of the earth around the sun, so not longer days shorter nights or different in certain parts of the world etc. The surface over the earth isn't elastic enough to travel quicker by day than by night, or quicker in Australia than here.
  • No, the earth isn't flat. Though when we find the wormhole from one pole to the other, that will make it technically doughnut-shaped. Although polar bears seemed to have stayed in the north and penguins in the south, so that's not too likely either.

Hope that whether you need some basic science, to calm a worry or wanted some entertainment, there's something for you in there 😅
Enjoy your day

Original poster
SleepingStandingUp · 01/09/2026 10:06

Octavia64 · 01/09/2026 09:58

The earths rotation is slowing.

but not a scale where humanity is likely to have to worry about it.

this summer my cats already reverse cycled - they slept in the hottest part of the day and were out and about in the night.

my error was in assuming it was clearly a hypothetical, thought experiment type post....

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Original poster
SleepingStandingUp · 01/09/2026 10:04

MaryIngallsRibbons · 01/09/2026 09:53

I recently read a book called ‘I who have never known men’ where the amount of time in their day was uncertain. Very thought provoking. Great read - I recommend.

I might try it after I've finished this one, although I feel like I'm deliberately putting off Empire of the Damned

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Original poster
SleepingStandingUp · 01/09/2026 10:02

RedTagAlan · 01/09/2026 09:48

I think it might be too hot to live.

Consider the recent UK heatwaves. Get to the hottest point of the say, then there is another 20 hours of blazing sunlight to come before the sun sets and the area around you can start to cool.

It would be like a conveyor belt pizza oven. And we are the pizza. The belt stops and we cant switch the heating element off.

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oh god this summer would have be intolerable.

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Original poster
SleepingStandingUp · 01/09/2026 09:58

ebfwtf · 01/09/2026 09:14

There’s a book with exactly this plot - the age of miracles - where some people start to live according to sunlight and others stick to 24 hours. It’s a really great book told from the perspective of a young teen.

yes I'm reading it. no spoilers please.

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Octavia64 · 01/09/2026 09:58

The earths rotation is slowing.

but not a scale where humanity is likely to have to worry about it.

this summer my cats already reverse cycled - they slept in the hottest part of the day and were out and about in the night.

Original poster
SleepingStandingUp · 01/09/2026 09:57

HeyThereDelila · 01/09/2026 07:19

What on Earth are you talking about? Your post is barely legible.

and yet everyone else has managed to respond? if you can't understand the post, you're not obliged to reply you know?

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Original poster
SleepingStandingUp · 01/09/2026 09:55

Tiltedd · 01/09/2026 07:08

As a rule I don’t tend to take advice about end of the world events from people who can’t use the correct ‘there, their they’re’

can you clarify where I've offered end of the world advice? I think you'll find I posed a question.

and honestly, if you're only contribution is "you used the wrong WORD!!!!!!" then I'm not sure anyone is interested in your opinion on the topic anyway.

OP posts:
moderate · 01/09/2026 09:54

Tiltedd · 01/09/2026 08:55

Maybe you should read her second post again. I’ve helpfully added a screenshot. Her second word is the wrong ‘there’

happy to help

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You’re missing a comma here:

the correct ‘there, their they’re’

You are also missing hyphens to make “end of the world” into a phrasal adjective when talking about end-of-the-world events.

Furthermore you have omitted full stops from the end of several sentences, and started one with a lowercase letter.

You obviously care a lot about other people’s grammar, and I’m very happy to help you with yours so that in future you can come across as less of a hypocrite.

MaryIngallsRibbons · 01/09/2026 09:53

I recently read a book called ‘I who have never known men’ where the amount of time in their day was uncertain. Very thought provoking. Great read - I recommend.

Original poster
SleepingStandingUp · 01/09/2026 09:49

Bryonyberries · 01/09/2026 06:56

I’d imagine it would be so gradual that life would evolve to the new cycle.

If it happened now we would probably still have our 24 natural cycle and it would be like living at the poles where they adapt to 6 months of dark then 6 months of light.

except it's more like one day or darks and one day is light then 25 then 26 etc. and the extreme heat and cold in the middle of those

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RedTagAlan · 01/09/2026 09:48

SleepingStandingUp · 01/09/2026 09:26

the heat and cold are definitely considerations for when to sleep etc. and if you stick to 24 hours do you want to be sending kids to school in the coldest part of the night or trying to sleep in the hottest.

for those saying "uh, stupid, this already HAPPENS" well no, months of "day" and months of "night" are a very different scenario, and comes with it's own problems

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I think it might be too hot to live.

Consider the recent UK heatwaves. Get to the hottest point of the say, then there is another 20 hours of blazing sunlight to come before the sun sets and the area around you can start to cool.

It would be like a conveyor belt pizza oven. And we are the pizza. The belt stops and we cant switch the heating element off.

Original poster
SleepingStandingUp · 01/09/2026 09:47

bjorni9 · 01/09/2026 03:16

Humans will be long gone!

it wouldn't kill us off immediately. the weather, crop failures, it all takes time

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