The Barn by Ralph Hagen for June 29, 2016

Because the Earth is spinning the other direction.

It kinda makes sense – kinda.

because the air the helicopter is hovering in is also spinning at 1000 mph like the Earth beneath it.

No refunds, Stan. Besides, you should know better than to request such a thing of Rory. Rory’s thoughts shoud remain within the confines of his head.

1000 MPH at the equator. ~622 MPH at London’s latitude.

You think that a tornado does damage.Try 1000mph (or 622mph) winds.

I have often wondered this.

As Einstein taught us, it all depends upon your frame of reference. With regard to the center of the earth, the surface of the earth is travelling at roughly 1,000 miles per hour; compared to the center of the sun, Earth is travelling ~67,000 miles per hour and compared to the center of the galaxy, earth is travelling at ~490,000 miles per hour.

http://www.gocomics.com/dogsofckennel/2016/06/27

It can, Rory! Assuming that it has enough gas to hover for 4 hours, and that it’s in London at the time! :-)

An oldie (Patrick Moore mentions it in his book “How to Speak Venusian”, which is full of examples of similar wonderful nut-jobbiness). The correct answer, of course, is that it could – but as the helicopter starts off on the ground, hurtling sideways at the same speed, to “just hover”, first of all it would have to kill its sideways motion and slow down by 1000mph (or whatever – over 1100mph at the equator, actually). Because, well, Newton’s First law. Meanwhile, the air it would be “hovering” in is still hurtling sideways at the same speed. The effect is precisely similar to trying to fly sideways for 16 hours at 1000/1100mph. And the helicopter has not yet been built that can remotely do that.

Inertia.