This is a question from Andrew, who asks: What would happen if the Earth and all terrestrial objects suddenly stopped spinning, but the atmosphere retained its velocity?

Well, first nearly everyone would die. Then things would get interesting.

At the Equator, the Earth's surface is moving at about 470 meters per second –a little over a thousand miles per hour– relative to its axis.

If the Earth stops and the air doesn't, the air there will suddenly be moving over the surface at 470 m/s. For reference, supersonic speed is 343 m/s.

The wind would be highest at the Equator, but everyone and everything living between 42 degrees north and 42 degrees south –which includes about 85% of the world's population– would also experience sudden supersonic winds.

The high winds would only last for a few minutes near the surface before friction with the ground slowed them down.

However, those few minutes would be long enough to reduce virtually all human structures to ruins.

Even structures strong enough to survive the winds themselves would be in trouble.

As comedian Ron White said about hurricanes, "It's not that the wind is blowing, it's what the wind is blowing." Say you're in a massive bunker made out of some material which can withstand thousand-mile-per-hour winds.

That's good, and you'd be fine if you were the only one with a bunker.