Around the World

Remember that scene in the first Superman movie? The one where he flies counterclockwise around the world to turn back time to save Lois? Yeah, that one. You can even hear John Williams’ theme.

Well, there are many who say that can’t happen.

Are they the modern-day sceptics preaching the world is flat? We’ll leave that up to you while we celebrate, of all things, World Rotation Day.

If you are on the side of the non-believer’s fence, you believe Earth’s rotation is independent of time; there isn’t an arrow linked to time and motion. You are entrenched in the belief time flows in one direction: forward. Meaning, Superman could not reverse time by reversing the Earth’s spin.

But, wait.

Superman: The Movie

What if we hypothesize Superman didn’t reverse the rotation of the Earth? What if it was merely an illusion – like the wagon wheel effect – and only appeared to spin backward? That it is only Superman flying in reverse, traveling back in time?

That seems to be a popular general consensus around the world wide web.

Of course, the whole scene could have been handled in a much easier and less confusing manner if Supes had just popped over to his buddy, the Flash’s, and jumped on the Cosmic Treadmill.  The Cosmic Treadmill, first introduced in The Flash (1959) 125. Not only did the treadmill allow Flash the ability to travel through time, but to parallel Earths. Which led, eventually, to the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

The treadmill is powered by cosmic rays that use radioactive pulses to either send the user into the past or the future depending on what was input into the programmable interface – and also allow easier travel to alternate Earths by matching the vibrational frequency of the Earth in question. Once arrived, Flash was required to maintain an internal vibrational frequency of his current Earth. To return, he simply relaxed, allowing the vibrations to stop.

World Rotation Day is celebrated on January 8 to commemorate the day in 1851 when French physicist Leon Foucault proved that the Earth rotates on its axis. The day also serves as an opportunity to learn more about the Earth’s rotation and its effects on time, weather, gravity and astronomy.