🌍 WHY THE EARTH SPINS
PAGE 1 OF 5, DAY AND NIGHT ON A SPINNING BALL
SPIN
ONE TURN EVERY 24 HOURS
Earth rotates eastward, that is why the Sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west. Half the planet faces the star at any moment (day); the other half faces deep space with only moonlight and starlight (night). A solar day is about 24 hours, the time from one noon to the next. Ancient peoples tracked shadows with sundials; today atomic clocks and GPS satellites measure spin to tiny fractions of a second.
⚡ DID YOU KNOW?
At the equator you move roughly 1,670 km/h just by standing still on the spinning Earth, faster than a jetliner, but you do not feel it because everything around you moves together.
SPIN!
AXIS
🌍 Imaginary line pole to pole
🎯 Tilt ~23.5°, seasons later
🧭 North star above north pole
🎯 Tilt ~23.5°, seasons later
🧭 North star above north pole
SHADOW
☀️ Long noon shadows in winter
🌗 Half-lit moon phases separate topic
🕰️ Time zones = slice the spin
🌗 Half-lit moon phases separate topic
🕰️ Time zones = slice the spin