Lemonado. Lemonado. Lemonado. Lemonado. Brains on Universe. Lemonado. You're listening to Brains On, where we're serious about being curious. Brains on Universe. There's an old story that goes something like this. Two fish are swimming in the water. And a turtle swims by and says, Good morning fish, how's the water? The two younger fish smile and nod and swim on for a bit. Then one fish stops and says to the other, What the heck is water? The fish didn't notice the water because they've been in it all their life. They never thought about it. The point is that there are things all around us that we just don't notice because they've always been there. Like the taste of your own spit. Or the smell of plain old air. Or how right now the earth is spinning hundreds of miles an hour and somehow we don't feel it. Yeah, that's a lot of speed, but I've never noticed it. Me neither. So hold on tight and we'll explain why that is. Do you love mystery sounds? Because I love mystery sounds. That's why I'm here in our Mystery Sounds storage room. Just admiring all the wonderful sounds. Like this one. Ah, is that a mystery sound or sweet music? I can't tell the difference. Did you guess that it was my dog's collar? If so, great job. Oh, oh, how about this one? I love this one. You know it? It's me fluffing a napkin. And who could forget this? Combing a gerbil? I know, too easy. It's the sound of a plastic fork I fashioned into a comb to comb the hair of my gerbil named Larry. We've all heard it a thousand times. I love mystery sounds because they make you stop and pay attention. They make you focus. They make you see and hear the world a little differently. And that's what we try to do with brains on. If seeing the world a little differently matters to you, then you should join SmartyPass. We do regular online hangs with listeners where we challenge them with fresh mystery sounds. We have a book club where SmartyPals can discuss a book with us. Plus, you can get ad-free versions of brains on forever ago and more. It's super easy to sign up. Just go to brainson.org slash SmartyPass. And most importantly, you can help support brains on. So we can provide a happy home for sounds like this. I could listen to Larry the Gerbil getting combed with a plastic fork all day. So join SmartyPass. I both say thanks. You're listening to brains on, part of the brains on universe. I'm Molly Bloom and my co-host today is Rian from Seattle. Hi Rian. Hey Molly, I love what you've done with the studio. The mirrors, the disco ball. Is that about labor? It's not me. It's Gungador. The dance obsessed monster who lives at our headquarters, he decorated it to look like a dance studio so he can tape his new video podcast here. It's called Monster Moves. Monster Moves? It's one of those podcasts where a bunch of giant monsters sit around and talk about famous choreography from movies and musicals. Oh, one of those. I hope his podcast can stand out from all the other podcasts where giant monsters discuss famous choreography from movies and musicals. I know Godzilla's podcast, Giant Steps. It's a mega hit. Yeah, that's what inspired him. That and King Kong's podcast, Kong and Dance. Of course, a classic podcast. Anyway, today we're talking about the Earth and answering a question that you asked us, Rian. Yeah, I wanted to know why can't you feel the Earth spinning? Great question. Right now, you, me and everything on the planet is spinning, spinning, spinning, and yet somehow we never feel it. Kind of like how our hair is always growing, but we never feel that either. Oh, I feel it. Every second, every single moment, I feel my curls creeping higher and higher, reaching for the sky, like Icarus flying too close to the sun until one day, snip. They get clipped and I get a cute new haircut. Okay. So Rian, what got you curious about the Earth spinning? I got this question when I was on the car looking at the wheel and suddenly, hmm, I thought the Earth is spinning too. So why can't we feel it? Great question. Do you like rides that spin a lot, kind of like, you know, the merry-go-round on a playground? I don't really like spinning, but it's cool to see you things spinning like a top. Do you get dizzy easily? Yes, very easily. So does that mean you get like motion-sick in cars too? Not that much. I just get dizzy when I'm spinning. So when you're are dizzy, do you like how that feels? No, it's weird. I don't really like it. I get it. When I was little, I actually kind of like to feel dizzy, so I would like spin on purpose. But now that I'm older, I really don't like that feeling at all. So Rian, when you have a big question, do you like to find the answer right away or do you like to just kind of like ponder it? I like to ponder it more. Where do you do your best thinking? I'm just like sitting on the couch and like looking at the TV, but the TV is not really on. So then I just keep thinking until I think of an idea or something. I like that. It's like the TV sort of like a stand-in for you to like watch your own thoughts. Yeah. That's really cool. Well, I love that we are spinning all the time. It is very fun to think about. Yeah, and you can tell we're spinning because the sun rises and sets every day. That's right. The sun isn't actually going around our planet once every 24 hours. Instead, it's our planet that is spinning us into and out of the light of the sun. That's because our planet is spinning on an axis. Like a spinning top or a ball spinning on someone's finger. We call this a rotation. Each day on Earth is one rotation. That means our planet rotates or spins once around every 24 hours. So imagine the spot you're in right now. When that spot rotates to where it is just starting to face the sun, that's sunrise. The Earth keeps spinning and to us on Earth, it looks like the sun is moving across the sky. And later, as it keeps spinning, that side turns away from the light and goes into shadow. That's nighttime for that side. One full rotation is one full day. Cool facts, but riddle me this. Why does the planet spin anyway? Another great question. Before Earth existed, even before the sun existed, our solar system was just a cloud of gas in space. Space gas. That cloud of gas was full of molecules that bumped into each other. And lots of those molecules hit each other at various angles, which caused them to spin. Kind of like how if you kick a soccer ball at an angle, you can get a good spin on it. Exactly. More and more of them started spinning and knocking into each other, creating more spin until the whole gas cloud was swirling like water going down a drain. Eventually, some of that spinning cloud of gas formed our sun. And other parts of that cloud of gas eventually formed Earth. And because the pieces that came together to form the Earth and Sun were spinning, the Earth and Sun kept spinning. The spin never stopped. So thanks to random bits of gas bumping into each other and creating a spin, our planet now rotates when you have day and night. Kind of blows your mind when you really think about it. And another amazing thing is that the Earth is spinning really fast. Think of a cheetah, a race car, or a bullet train. Those are slow pokes compared to the Earth's spin. A cheetah can run around 70 miles per hour. A race car and a bullet train can both zip along at 200 miles per hour. But our planet rotates every moment at a speed of about 1,000 miles an hour if you measure at the equator, which is like the belt around the middle of a globe. Now, if you were at the park and you saw a merry-go-round... Whoa, a merry-go-round! That's my favorite. And you hopped on that merry-go-round... Let's spin! Make it go faster! Faster! If it went so fast it reached 1,000 miles an hour like the Earth, you would not only feel it, you'd be flung off and go flying. Weeeeeee! No regrets! So why aren't we flung off the Earth? Which is basically the largest merry-go-round ever. We don't even get dizzy. We'll answer that in just a minute. But for now, let's give our ears a spin and check out the... ...sounds! Here it is. That was sharp. Can we hear it again? Okay, Rian, what do you think? Maybe when you're on a bow and then you open a window and you can hear all the sounds and you close it again. It sounds like it's outside to me. Yeah, there's weird rumble sound at the background. I think I heard birds, maybe? I think it's outside. I'm going to think of a piece of playground equipment. But what makes that sound? I don't know. Let's say someone got their pants stuck in a swing. I don't know how somebody's pants get stuck in a swing. They're trying to get their pants...the hem of their cuff stuck. That might be a pretty good idea. Really? Because I think the swing that makes that sound and then the background is like the kids playing. I'm going to say swing set related. I like your bowed idea. But we'll get another chance to hear it and guess and hear the answer at the end of the show. We're working on an episode all about light bulbs. Light bulbs are often used in comics or cartoons to show when someone gets a bright idea. They might also shout something like, I've got it, or Eureka. Like maybe the first person to think of dipping spicy chicken wings in cool soothing ranch dressing, they probably shouted Eureka, a perfect pair. Exactly. So we want to hear from you. What word do you think we should shout when we have a light bulb moment? Rian, what would you shout when you have a bright idea? I would shout Uga Booga. I really like that. Is it okay if I borrow that next time I get a good idea? Sure. Thank you so much. Well, listeners, record your idea and send it to us at BrainsOn.org. We can't wait to hear what you come up with. And you can send questions and mystery sounds there too. Thanks and keep listening. A live action game that takes place throughout the lodge to the Northern Lights Arcade. There's also a bunch of great dining options and complimentary daily events like nightly dance parties all under one roof. And the best part? With 22 lodges across the country, you're always only a short drive away from adventure. So bring your pack together at a lodge near you. Book your stay today at GreatWolf.com and strengthen the pack. Welcome to Monster Moves, a podcast where monsters talk dance. I am host Gangadore, guest today of Bigfoot and Kraken. Hello, Gung-a-door. Truly a pleasure to be here. Kraken hungry. Today we talk about famous dance movie, Singing in Rain, starring Gangadore's hero, Gene Kelly. Yes, it's quite the film. And Gene Kelly's iconic choreography in this scene where he is literally dancing in the rain is pure Hollywood magic. He's both so athletic and so joyous. And to think while filming that scene, he was ill and running a fever of 103 degrees. But it doesn't show because Kelly is ever the professional. Great boys, what are Kraken thoughts on movie? Rain, wet. Another good point. Coming up, Gangadore's dream fancast for Frankenstein the Musical. Music. Rain! This is Brains On. I'm Molly, here with my buddy, Rian. And we're talking about the spin of the earth. The rotation of this station. The twirl of the world. And we're wondering if the planet is going round and round so fast, why don't we feel it? There are a few main reasons. One has to do with how smooth the spin is. Right, the earth has been rotating at a very constant speed for a very long time. That speed doesn't really change. We notice motion the most when things are speeding up or slowing down, like when a car suddenly brakes. Or a plane speeds up to take off. Or when we change directions, like when you're riding your bike, but suddenly swerve to miss a pop-up. Those changes in speed and direction feel like movement. But imagine you're on a long train ride. And imagine you're on that train with all the window shades closed. If the train is going at a very steady speed and there are no bumps or turns in the track, you won't notice that you're moving at all. It'll just feel like you're in a normal, still room. It's not until you open the shades that you see the world whizzing by. In the room of the train, though, all the seats, the books you've brought, even the air, it's all moving the same speed as you. Which means to you, it seems like it's not moving. That is, relative to you, it's perfectly still. This is called relative motion. Now, when we apply this to the whole planet, the Earth is moving very smoothly through space. There are no bumps along the way and no dramatic speeding up or slowing down. Plus, all the plants, mountains, buildings, oceans, animals are all moving at exactly the same speed as you. Which means again, to you, it seems like they aren't moving at all. They're staying still. So, that's one reason we don't feel the spin of the Earth. But what about being flung off the planet? Yeah, even if the speed is constant, it's a lot of speed. And when things spin on Earth, they tend to fly outward. Think of putting a bunch of tennis balls on that merry-go-round from before. Give it a super spin and the balls will go flying off. That motion flinging the balls away from the merry-go-round is sometimes called centrifugal force. This spinning planet makes some pretty strong centrifugal force. But it turns out there's an even stronger force stopping it from flinging you and me and everything else out into space. And that force is... Gravity. Gravity. So, yes, there is in fact a centrifugal force acting on us, trying to fling us into space. But we don't fly off because gravity is doing the opposite. Gravity is trying to pin us down on this massive planet. And gravity is much, much stronger than the centrifugal force. Compared to the gravity, it's so weak that we don't even really notice it. We just notice the gravity. Gravity. So even though we are constantly twirling, it doesn't feel like we are. That's in part thanks to relative motion and how smooth the spin is. And in part thanks to gravity keeping our feet on the ground. Which is great because if we could feel the Earth spinning, we'd be dizzy all the time. That brings us to this question. Hi, my name is Henry and I'm from a story in New York City. My question is, why do we get dizzy when we spin around? We'll answer that right after we check the mailbag. Music Hey, it's Sandin and Hey Ho. Let's go check the mail. Ooh, this one feels, I want to say musical. Let's see what's inside. Hi, Brain Dawn. I'm Walter and I'm from Illinois. So I improvised the Brain Dawn theme song and I added like some chords and stuff. Hope you like it. Enjoy. Music Love you show. Bye. Okay, that was rad. Thank you so much for sending that in. High five or wait for musicians. Is it five sharp? I don't know. Whatever. Walter, thank you so much for sending that in. And if you want to send something to us, go ahead and reach out. Just head to brainson.org slash contact. See you in the mailbag. Music You can get all the brains on shows without ads and support this amazing work by doing one small thing. Joining SmartyPass. It powers everything we do and makes sure that brains on will be around in the future. So curious kids will still have a place to get their questions answered. Join at SmartyPass.org. Music Welcome back to Monster Moves. Oh, Gangadour has listened our question. Hey, Gangadour. I love spinning when I dance, but I get dizzy. Can you help? Yes, of course. Gangadour can help. Come closer. It's a secret. I will whisper it. The secret is never stop spinning. Earth is always spinning and we don't feel it because Earth never stops spinning. So you too must never stop. Like this.哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎 It's an eerie answer, but irresistibly interesting. I'm all ears. Ready to ear it? If you haven't guessed yet, it has to do with your ears. Strangely enough, it has to do with the fluid in your ears, but not like water stuck in there after you get out of the pool. Deep in your inner ears, away from the stuff you can touch with your finger, there are tubes filled with a special liquid. And as you move, that liquid sloshes around. There are special hairs in that liquid that bend and move as the liquid moves. And those hairs send signals to your brain about what they're doing. The sloshing liquid with those special hairs is one of the ways your brain knows you are moving your head. Like, say you turn your head to the right real quick. That'll make the liquid slosh to the right, too. That tells the brain, hey, we just turned to the right. Or say you lay your head down to rest. As you do, that liquid will slosh around, moving those hair cells, which tells the brain. The head is laying down now. So when you spin and spin and spin, what do you think happens with that ear liquid? It goes wild, sloshing like the ocean in a storm. Yep, it sloshes so much that even when you stop moving, it's still going. Which is super confusing for your brain. It's getting signals from the eyes and body that you are now standing still. But the ears are like, yeah, no, we are definitely still moving. My ear liquid is sloshing like nobody's business. That mix up of signals is what we call dizziness. Luckily, it only takes a few moments for the ear fluid to settle down and for things to get back to normal. Dizziness gone. Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba, brains on. Hi, Rien. Hi, Molly. Oh, hey, Gungador. What's up? Big news. Gungador's podcast is going to have mega super good guest next week. Oh, who is it? Do you know K-pop demon hunters? Oh my gosh. Are you interviewing Rumi about her dancing? No, even better. Gungador is interviewing the demons. Coolest dance monsters ever. The Earth is always spinning at a speed of about 1,000 miles an hour. That spin gives us day and night. But we never feel that spinning because it's constant. We also don't get flung off the planet thanks to gravity. There's fluid in our ears that helps our brains know when we move. And when we spin a lot, that fluid keeps moving even after we stop, which makes us feel dizzy. That's it for this episode of Brains On. This episode was produced by me, Molly Bloom, Mark Sanchez, and Sandin Totten. It was sound designed by Mark Sanchez, who also wrote Earth's D music. We had voice acting from Anna Weggel, Brant Miller, and Kathy Merescu. Special thanks to Steven Chen, Cindy Cheng, Rien's friend Isaac, because he gave Rien the awesome idea for Uga Buga and all of Rien's friends at school. Also, we want to thank Ken Toborsky at Kota the North for their website help. OK, Rien, are you ready for that mystery sound again? Yeah. OK, here it is. OK, new thoughts, Rien. It could be when you're at home, when you open the window, it's like weird handle. And then maybe it was windy that day. Great idea. I'm going to say you're outside and you're flipping a metal switch that you're not sure what it does. And it turns out it does nothing. Should we see if we're right? Sure. OK, here's the answer. Hi, my name is Mika, and my name is Alma. And that was the sound of our bike kickstand getting kicked up and then getting kicked down. Oh, a bike kickstand. Getting kicked? OK, you know, like how there's that thing, the kickstand? Yeah. So like when you kick up the kickstand with your foot, it goes like bring up. And you can kick it down again. It goes bring down. That was tricky. I love that one. We heard it was outside, so we got that much. Now it's time for the brain's honor roll. These are the kids who keep the show going with their questions. Ideas, mystery sounds, drawings, and high fives. Ethan from Hartford, South Dakota. Quincy from Eagle River, Alaska. Avery from Denver. Korra from Georgetown, Texas. Caleb from Ottawa. Emmett from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Julian from Los Angeles. Lauren from West Long Ranch, New Jersey. Joey from Taronga, New Zealand. Colin Avery from Toronto. Rayleigh from Bluffton, South Carolina. Kavan from Goragon, India. Thaddeus from Millersville, Pennsylvania. Cheeto from Cape Town, South Africa. Zachary from Glasgow, Scotland. Gus from Crosshill, South Carolina. Isaac from Sutton, Coldfield, England. Rosa from Frome, UK. Simon from Kerry, North Carolina. Mara from Minneapolis. Sky from Detroit. Cole from Edmonton, Alberta. Harrah from San Jose, California. Anki from Auckland, New Zealand. Grace from Washington, D.C. Celine from Houston, Texas. Patrice Logtug's fifth grade class from Winchester, California. Karen from Indianapolis. Andrew from Iskayuna, New York. Chris from Erie, Pennsylvania. Georgie from Philadelphia. Hewn from New York. Harry from Gimpo, South Korea. Eliza and David from Pittsburgh. Finn from Fort Knox, Kentucky. Maggie and Jordan from Macawau, Hawaii. Dylan from Horley, United Kingdom. Adlin from Los Brigel, Berda. Ellie from Colorado Springs. Isaiah from Aberdeen, Scotland. Eleanor from Berlin, Germany. Leander from Kishner, Ontario. Emmy and Maya from Seattle. Donnie from Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Dylan, Jerhuxley, and Killian from North and Over, Massachusetts. Evan from Marlboro, Connecticut. Elio from Shoreline, Washington. Ben, Nate, and Jake from Mars, Pennsylvania. Hannah from Apapka, Florida. Abraham from Denver. Miles from Salt Lake City. Marlo from Los Angeles. Addy from Uless, Texas. Tommy from Fruit Heights, Utah. Agi from Park City, Utah. Eleanor from Leesburg, Virginia. Winter from Alabama. Nolan from Prekasi, Pennsylvania. Henry from Green Bay, Wisconsin. Gemma from Kapolei, Hawaii. Katie from Wiley, Texas. And Bonnie from Dallas, Texas. ["Breathe Like A Wall"] ["Breathe Like A Wall"] ["Breathe Like A Wall"] ["Breathe Like A Wall"] We'll be back next week with an episode about what happens in our bodies when they start changing from kid ones to grown-up ones. Thanks for listening.
