2006-07-28 07:34:42 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
conservation of momentum - all of the material that makes up the earth had to be moving when it came together. If they weren't moving, they would have never met up.
All of those individual movements added together gave the early earth it's rotation. If later clumps of rock, ice, whatever hit so that was going in the same general direction as the existing rotation, it sped things up a tiny bit. If they hit going the other way, they slowed things down. The net effect is that we're turning east to west.
2006-07-28 07:40:56 · answer #1 · answered by Ralfcoder 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The earth, like most other celestial bodies, spins because the material that made it up was moving when it all came together. At some point in Earth's early history, it was also most likely impacted by a huge rock--about the size of the planet Mars. The collision, it is thought, propelled a lot of rock and dust into space--which then coalesced into our moon. Meanwhile, the collision further increased the speed of the earth's spin.
An interesting aside is that the Earth doesn't truly rotate around its axis. It rotates around the combined axis of the Earth and the Moon, which is about three-quarters of the way out from the Earth's center.
2006-07-28 07:55:06 · answer #2 · answered by Patrick C 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Conservation of angular momentum. The creation of the solar system occured when a clump of dust and gas started collapsing and rotating. eventually the sun forms in the middle and the rest of the planets form by accretion (things running into eachother) and gravitation. The newly formed planets and sun retain the angular momentum of the cloud from which they were formed. This is the same reason why all planets orbit in the same direction and why most planets rotate on their axis the same way.
2006-07-28 09:48:15 · answer #3 · answered by April C 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The rotation of the earth is separate force from the earth rotating around the sun. A gravity well is around the sun that the earth and other planets, comets, things are caught in. The spinning of the earth is a force that it just has from possibly the creation of the earth. Thing of it as a you spinning a marble in your sink.
2006-07-28 07:41:47 · answer #4 · answered by Dennis W 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
OFCOURCE it would desire to be genuine THT MOON ROTATES WIT comparable AS U advised in spite of the shown fact that it quite is not needed 4 ALL if earth rotates with the value thst of the revolution velocity then it is going to fly off from its orbit u have been given it,ok might for moon & mercury it stables there r some formulae to calculate the speed & the stress of charm of the sunlight in the direction of the earth(centrifugal stress)ok i think of u understood ok bye
2016-12-10 16:34:17 · answer #5 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Th Earth rotates on its axis because of a collision billions of years ago (from that we got our moon). The moon is why we have seasons and a stable climate.
2006-07-28 10:05:29 · answer #6 · answered by dillon837 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The creation of Earth started its rotation, it continued to rotate after that.
2006-07-28 07:47:55 · answer #7 · answered by Science_Guy 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think it might be becuase there is an invisible magnet between the earth at a slight tilt, thats why in globes they are on their side.
2006-07-28 07:38:46 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋