What makes earth rotate on its axis??
145598
The Earth was formed spinning (like a top) and it just hasn't stopped spinning since then.  There is very little friction that would slow it down (space is pretty empty).\n\nThere are different theories as to why it was created spinning.  But most likely it formed from gas and dust that was swirling, and that angular momentum is still with us today.
352683
The earth has several different movements. First, it rotates on its axis, which takes 24 hours. During this period, the parts of the earth that face toward the sun experience day, while the parts that face away from the sun experience night. Second, the earth revolves around the sun.. in a large elliptical orbit. This process takes a year. The earth's journey around the sun along with the earth's tilting axis produce the seasons. Third, the earth, sun and other planets are all moving within the galaxy, but this is on a very large scale, and is not really noticeable or of interest to most people.\n\nTo sum up:\nmovement of the earth on its axis: rotation. it takes 24 hours.\nmovement of the earth around the sun: revolution. it takes 365.24 days.
20309
I want to add more:\n1) Due to the distance to the Moon relative to the size of our planet, it doesn't really matter from which point on Earth you are looking at our natural satellite. You will see virtually the same part of the surface.\n2) The reason the Moon rotates around its axis at about the same time it rotates around the Earth is because it is tidally locked with the Earth. Tidal lock worked for billions of years to achieve the present effect, but it's still not perfect: the Moon slightly advances or gets behind in its axial rotation relative to its revolution around the Earth. So, over time, we are actually able to see around 57% of its surface, rather than just 50%.\n3) The Earth is not close enought to the Sun to be tidally locked by its gravity (even Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, isn't). So that's why the Sun-Earth relation is different.
314905
Imagine a molten ball of liquid rock in space. It will take the shape of a sphere due to the gravitational pull - any other shape would be turned into a sphere by gravity over time. \n\nNow, set this sphere rotating. Due to centrifugal forces, the sphere will bulge slighty round its equator. There you have it, the shape of the Earth.
168503
Finally, the gravitational pull between the Earth and Sun causes the Earth to travel around, or "orbit", the Sun at a velocity of 29.8 km/sec. At the same time, the Earth also turns on its axis causing the daily cycle of day and night. This "rotational velocity" is approximately .47 km/sec. That means that at the same time we're hurdling through space at nearly 67,000 mph, we're also spinning around in circles at over 1000 mph! Whew! Almost makes you dizzy, doesn't it?
467215
Spin relative to what?\n\nThe spin of the Earth about its own axis causes day and night but only because the spin is not synchronised with the orbit of the axis around the sun.  Mercury spins once on its axis for every orbit and so always has the same face to the sun.  It could be said in this case that Mercury does not spin, but that is only relative to the orbit of Mercury.\n\nImagine a frame of reference that is fixed in space like the grid lines on a map.  If a planet did not spin on its axis relative to this reference, then it would have a day/night cycle that took one orbit to complete (this would be one year for the Earth).\n\nIt is also believed that the spin of the Earth contributes to the generation of the magnetic field, so if the spinning stopped or slowed (relative to any reference) we could loose the magnetic field and thus be exposed to higher radiation levels from the sun.
462133
1. earth's tilt\n2. earth rotation\n3. earth revolution
1119993
This is simply a matter of perspective. From the South Pole, the earth's rotation is clockwise.
1133398
That depends on where on Earth you are standing. At the poles, the Earth hardly spins at all, but as you travel towards the equator, the rotational speed picks up. This makes sense -- as the circumference of a circle increases, a single point along it has to travel faster to complete a revolution in the same amount of time. \n\nThe rotational speed of the Earth at the equator is about 1,038 miles per hour. The atmosphere at the equator is also slightly thicker due to rotation, and you weigh slightly less. At mid-latitudes, the speed of the Earth's rotation decreases to 700 to 900 miles per hour. \n\nIf the Earth were to stop spinning suddenly, the atmosphere would still be zipping along nicely at around 1,000 miles an hour. As a result, everything not attached to bedrock would pretty much be scoured clean. \n\nThe circumference of the Earth at the equator is 25,000 miles. The Earth rotates in about 24 hours. Therefore, if you were to hang above the surface of the Earth at the equator without moving, you would see 25,000 miles pass by in 24 hours, at a speed of 25000/24 or just over 1000 miles per hour. \n\nMultiply by cosine of your latitude to see how fast the Earth is rotating where you are. \n\nHope you get an A if you are doing a science project haha.  Or hope you learned something :)
476223
The Earth rotates once in 24 hours, and its (equatorial) radius is 3,963 miles (6,378 km). As with the Moon, the rotational speed starts at zero at either geographic pole and increases as you head toward the equator, where it reaches its maximum of about 1038 mi/hr (1669 km/hr). At 45 degrees north or south latitude, the rotational speed is about 0.7 of this maximum speed.
596684
The correct option is 'rotation of the earth'. When earth revolves, some part of it is directly facing the sun, and the other part is not. That explains the presence of day in one part of the world, and night in the other.
299849
The 24 hour clock was originally devised by the ancient civilisations of Egypt, India and China. It has stuck ever since.\n\nIt actually takes the Earth 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds to rotate 360 degrees. The reason for the extra 4 minutes or so it that the earth has to rotate just that little bit more (361 degrees) because it has orbited the sun a little during that period.
215475
The Earth is rotating around an axis (called its rotational axis). Some objects rotate about a horizontal axis, like a rolling log. Some objects, such as a skater, rotate about a vertical axis. The Earth's axis is tipped over about 23.5° from vertical.\n\nHow do we define up and down in space? What would "vertical" mean? For the Earth, we can think of vertical as straight up and down with respect to the plane in which the Earth orbits the Sun (called the ecliptic).\n\nEarth's rotational axis points in the same direction relative to the stars, so that the North Pole points towards the star Polaris. Think of the Earth as a spinning top, tipped over to one side. Over very long time periods (thousands of years) the direction of Earth's axis slowly changes due to precession.\n\nThe Earth rotates around once in 24 hours - that's a rate of 1000 miles per hour!. The time it takes for the Earth to rotate completely around once is what we call a day. It's Earth's rotation that gives us night and day.\n\nThe combined effect of the Earth's tilt and its orbital motion result in the seasons
608387
The Earth's center contains a lot of molten iron; due to Earth's rotation, it rotates too, thus generating a magnetic field. It's bit more complicated, but in a nut that's the explanation.
334932
The axis of the earth shifts seasonally.
342981
Earth ROTATES about itself.\nIt REVOLVES around the sun.\nThere is a difference betwen earth's ROTATION and \nREVOLUTION.\n\nROTATION takes 24 hours.\nREVOLUTION takes 365.255 days\n\nPeople say, 'the sun is up or the sun rises'.  This is conventional.  You can't expect people to speak technically and scientifically.  A scientist won't speak like that.\n\nthe sun is fixed in its position and it rotates about itself.  only the earth and other planets are rotating about themselves and revolve around the sun.  Sun is the centre of gravity for them.  If they don't ROTATE around themself, they will be attracted by the sun and they will become the food for the sun's fire.  They ROTATE only to counter-attact that gravitational force by the sun.\n\n\nExamples for u:\n\nROTATION:  Imagine a top, it rotates around itself\nREVOLUTION:Consider a circular circuit in a motor car race.\n\nEarth does these two things.
172943
The earth moves in many ways. For example:\n\n1. The surface of the earth exhibits earth tides, just like the surface of the oceans, because of the gradient of the gravity field the earth is in, due to the moon, sun and other celestial bodies (so there are usually about 2 high earth tides per day, and 2 low earth tides; they have an amplitude of a few feet). \n\n2. The ground moves due to earthquakes and volcanoes, etc.\n\n3. The ground moves due to the slow movement of tectonic plates\n\n4. The earth rotates on its axis (takes about 24 hours; this is slowing down because of the effect of the tides)\n\n5. The earth revolves around the sun (well the center of mass of the solar system actually, and it takes about 365.25 days to make one circuit)\n\n6. The pole of the earth precesses with a period of about 26,000 years (the direction the north pole points rotates)\n\n7. The axis of the earth bobs up and down while it rotates, called nutation (18.6 year period)\n\n8. The pole of the earth wobbles, called the Chandler Wobble (earth's pole moves in irregular circle of 3-15 m diameter with period of about 435 days) because of storms and other atmospheric and ocean redistributions of mass, and conservation of angular momentum. \n\n9. The earth's orbit around the center of mass of the solar system is elliptical, and the eccentricity of the ellipse varies with a period of about 100,000 years\n\n10. The axis tilt of the earth varies from 21.5 to 24.5 degrees with a period of about 41,000 years.\n\n11. The center of mass of the solar system varies a bit due to motion of the sun and the planets.\n\n12. The solar system as a whole moves in our galaxy about the center (a period of 225 million years, and moving at about 250 km/sec)\n\n13. The solar system bobs up and down in the limb of the Milky Way galaxy with a period of tens of millions of years\n\n14. Our galaxy is moving through space very rapidly (about 300 km/sec, but this depends on what you are measuring relative to; see references)