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by vikiomega9 1849 days ago
> for instance, above normal fresh water accumulation on land will measurably change the length of a day

Is there a name for this that I can google for?

2 comments

The general physics concept is moment of inertia. If water is moved uphill, this redistributes some of the Earth's mass further away from the axis of rotation, which increases its moment of inertia. Since the total angular momentum of the Earth is not changed by doing this, the result is a reduction of the angular velocity, in other words lengthening the day.

NASA calculated, for instance, that filling the Three Gorges Dam reservoir would lengthen the day by 0.06 microseconds.

I wondered why the days felt longer. Thanks.