Nothing like a little misrepresentation to muddy the waters.
Gravity does indeed hold the atmosphere to the Earth. However, nobody has claimed or implied that every gas molecule remains exactly in the same spot in relation to the Earth at all times. That's a strawman fallacy.
I'm all ears. Gravity holding the atmosphere to the earth is the assertion that Magenta made, right? I simply gave my understanding of what such a mechanism would entail, and
politely asked for an explanation.
You have since taken Magenta's assertion to the next level with your addition of the word "indeed", right? And you've even called my honest understanding of what her claim would entail a "strawman fallacy", right? In my eyes, that makes you more of an expert on the subject than she, and so maybe you'd be so kind as to "unmuddy" the waters for everyone by simply addressing my polite request for her to please explain it to me. I simply have some questions... that's all.
For one example, we have a lot of "dust devils" in AZ. You can see (by means of the dust) the air (atmosphere) easily breaking free from the earth beneath it. Why then would that same air be "stuck" to an earth that is spinning up to 1012 mph at the equator - to the point that it also travels 1012 mph, and way faster the higher you go up?
As another example, jet streams up high in the sky are no secret. You can travel in one that's moving westward, and then raise your altitude a bit and be right smack dab in the middle of another one that is moving eastward - directly adjacent to the one moving westward!
Those kinds of things simply don't sound to me like an atmosphere that is "stuck" to the earth to the point that one can fire a model rocket straight up, and watch it land very close to its launch point, "because the atmosphere moved right along with the earth while the rocket was in the air".
So please explain how this gravity/atmosphere mechanism actually works, if you don't mind. If none of the individual air molecules are literally stuck to the earth (or each other) by gravity at any given time, then why would the atmosphere as a whole move right along with the earth?