[kevviiinn]

If the earth is rotating to the east, and we launch a rocket that drops boosters from the east coast, doesn't that mean that the land mass would move under where the boosters would drop? Wouldn't the earth need to be rotating towards the west for it to move the land mass away from the launch site?

[cubic_earth]

It you are in a room, and you jump, does the wall suddenly slam into you at 1,000 mph? Why or why not?

[kevviiinn]

Because I already have momentum from the earth, but a rocket will be disconnected from the earth for far longer than I would be jumping. The path of a rocket would start to curve away from the launch site due to no longer being connected from the earth for such a long time.

[cubic_earth]

1) An object will maintain its momentum forever unless some force acts upon it.

2) In the case of the rocket, it accelerates eastward. Even if parts fall off, and they slow down because of the drag of the atmosphere, and they slow down all the way to the speed of the atmosphere, the atmosphere is more or less moving eastward at the same speed as the earth's rotation, so any part would be unlikely to land any further west than where it detached from the rocket. And if there was no atmosphere on earth any part that fell off a rocket during its ascent to orbit would fall according to a ballistic trajectory and would most certainly land farther east than where it fell.

[kevviiinn]

So there's no friction from the atmosphere?

[the_mungler]

"friction from the atmosphere" = drag. The previous commenter explains the effect friction has.

[joko42]

That's Aristotle physics.

[kevviiinn]

Friction doesn't exist I guess. Spherical cow and all that?