World of All Kinds of Art

Sunset Original
Can an airplane follow a sunset for hours on end?

The Earth is said to rotate at around 1,000 MPH. For our purposes, let's assume it spins at exactly 1,000 MPH. If the Earth spins counter-clockwise when viewed from above the North Pole, in other words it spins towards the East, than could an airplane traveling at 1,000 MPH towards the West taking off at the beginning of a sunset travel for hours on end without the sun ever seeming to move below its original position relative to the horizon when the plane took off?

My assumption is that it could because with the Earth spinning in one direction at 1,000 MPH and an airplane traveling at 1,000 MPH in the opposite direction, the two should cancel each other out. This would lead to an apparent ground speed of 2,000 MPH for the plane and make for the plane staying in the same spot relative not to the Earth, but to the Sun.

Is this true, if a supersonic jet travels at 1,000 MPH towards the sunset, would the sun never go below the horizon until the plane lands?

You got it all right except for the part about the apparent GS being 2000 mph. Flying stationary relative to the sun guarantees a GS of 1000 mph, using your previous arguments.

Also, your opening statement is true only at the equator; at latitude ±60°, the linear speed is only half that at the equator, so a 500 mph GS would have the same effect of freezing the sun at a constant height above the horizon.

Goaschuld - Behind the sunset (original version) Chill out music


Riding into the sunset
As the sun set on the 2010 Santa Maria Elks Rodeo, the Central Coast has a number of reasons to be proud.