Hmmm. Looks like my last reply to Penny vanished into cyberspace.

(sigh)

I should have copied it before I hit "submit".

My main point was that any vehicle traveling 1,000 miles an hour (a planet included) can steadily decelerate to zero in quite a short time without injuring itself or its passengers. This is amply demostrated by our modern aircraft...or by various other machines we have.

The point is, you have to decelerate or accelerate very smoothly in order to prevent major shocks and damage to the vehicle and the passengers.

This is just as true of a very large vehicle as it is of a small vehicle. It is sudden and abrupt changes in velocity which hurt you (through inertial forces)...not steady acceleration or deceleration.

An earthquake is a sudden shock. So is a car crash. Both are very damaging, as we well know. A slowing of planetary rotation would not be very damaging if it were to take place smoothly over, say, an hour. I doubt that it would even cause very significant tsunamis...but a sudden shock like an earthquake CAN do so.

And, Ebbie, I am not predicting that we are about to experience this. I have no way of knowing that or supposing it. I am merely suggesting a possible theory which would help explain some ancient legends about the sun pausing in its march across the sky for 3 days...and about longer than usual periods of night (again, a duration of about 3 days). Such legends exist in many parts of the world. I don't think they just burst forth out of nowhere. I think they are a link to something that really happened in the remote past.

This does not equate to me predicting that it's going to happen next week or next year. ;-) Okay? I have no idea when or if it will happen in the future.