China slows Earth's rotation and alters time - NASA
Photo: China changed the course of time with the Three Gorges Dam (Getty Images)
Changing the laws of time is considered impossible. However, NASA has stated that one man-made structure in China is so massive that it may have affected the Earth's rotation, Yahoo News reports.
Giant dam capable of affecting planet's orbit
Dr Benjamin Fong Chao at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center presented a study linking the size and weight of the Three Gorges Dam in China to changes in Earth’s orbit.
Largest power plant in the world
Completed in 2012, the Three Gorges Dam spans the Yangtze River near the city of Sandouping and is considered the largest power station in the world by installed capacity.
It measures 2,335 meters in width and 185 meters in height above sea level. The total construction cost reached $20.4 billion.
Photo: Three Gorges Dam (Getty Images)
40 trillion liters of water and microscopic effect
The dam can hold about 40 cubic kilometers of water, equivalent to 40 trillion gallons. This causes a shift in the Earth's mass, which, according to NASA calculations, increases the length of a day by 0.06 microseconds.
It also makes the planet slightly bulge at the equator and flatten at the poles.
Almost imperceptible 'stretching' of time
Unfortunately, this change in time is completely unnoticeable to humans - one microsecond equals 0.000001 seconds, and the dam's effect is only 0.00000006 seconds per day.
To lengthen the day by even one second, it would take 16,666,666 Three Gorges Dams, based on mass alone.
Impact over entire history of universe
According to Dr Chao, this slowing of the planet's rotation is equivalent to about three extra days over the entire history of the universe, which is estimated to be 13.8 billion years old. So there's nothing to worry about.
Users reacted: "Where are my three days off?"
After the publication of the findings, one Reddit user jokingly asked, "Can I get all those days at once in the form of a three-day weekend?" Another added, "We slowed the Earth down without even waiting for GTA 6 to be released" (referring to the upcoming action-adventure video game - ed.).
Another blow to flat Earth believers
Finally, this is yet another blow to the theories of flat Earth supporters - though one might think that evidence from the world's leading scientists should have already convinced them to abandon such beliefs.
The Three Gorges project was approved in 1993. The construction of the world's largest dam - 2,300 meters long and 185 meters high - was completed in 2006.
