What is the speed of the earth's rotation?

Question

And how do we know

Answer 1

If by "turning" you mean the rotation of the Earth about its axis (where axis just means the straight line between the North and South poles) it is quite easy to figure out how fast any part of the Earth's surface is moving.

The Earth rotates once in a few minutes under a day (23 hours 56 minutes 04. 09053 seconds). This is called the sidereal period (which means the period relative to stars). The sidereal period is not exactly equal to a day because by the time the Earth has rotated once, it has also moved a little in its orbit around the Sun, so it has to keep rotating for about another 4 minutes before the Sun seems to be back in the same place in the sky that it was in exactly a day before.

An object on the Earth's equator will travel once around the Earth's circumference (40,075.036 kilometers) each sidereal day. So if you divide that distance by the time taken, you will get the speed. An object at one of the poles has hardly any speed due to the Earth's rotation. (A spot on a rod one centimeter in circumference for example, stuck vertically in the ice exactly at a pole would have a speed of one centimeter per day!). The speed due to rotation at any other point on the Earth can be calculated by multiplying the speed at the equator by the cosine of the latitude of the point. (If you are not familiar with cosines, I wouldn't worry about that now, but if you can find a pocket calculator which has a cosine button you might like to try taking the cosine of your own latitude and multiplying that by the rotation speed at the equator to get your own current speed due to rotation!).

The Earth is doing a lot more than rotating, although that is certainly the motion we notice most, because day follows night as a result. We also orbit the Sun once a year. The circumference of the Earth's orbit is about 940 million kilometers, so if you divide that by the hours in a year you will get our orbital speed in kilometers per hour. We are also moving with the Sun around the center of our galaxy and moving with our galaxy as it drifts through intergalactic space!

Answer 2

The earth does NOT in fact rotate in 24 hrs, if we define a rotation as a turn of 360 degrees. That takes 23hr 56 minutes, a so-called Sidereal day. You can measure this by timing when a prominent star such as Rigel passes over a chimney or some chosen mark, when viewed from a selected spot. The next night, it will pass over 4 minutes earlier.
A solar day is the time between the sun standing at its greatest height, due south between one day and the next. This averages 24 hours, but varies over the year by several minutes.

The reason a day and a rotation differ is because by the time the earth has turned round so the sun is in the south again, the planet has moved around its orbit a bit. It thus has to rotate a little further to face the sun.

Answer 3

The 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.

Answer 4

appropriate interior the start, the hours in accordance to day shortens. Earth's magnetic field skill will improve. And the centrifugal forces can cancel out quite a few Earth's gravity, and improve the equator's radius. And a factor observe, in case you greater effective the Earth's % as plenty as 10000 km/h, or shorten its day to actual 4 hours, then the centrifugal forces could cancel out Earth's gravity and throw each factor off the planet. The Earth rotates at a optimal % of 1673.5km/hr on its equator. approximately 1000 miles in accordance to hour. to reveal screen the day shortening to actual 23 hours in accordance to day quite of 24, then the Earth's rotation % must be greater effective by applying applying in basic terms 68km/h. top all the way down to 22 hours, 147.1km. top all the way down to 20 hours, 233.9km/h, and likewise you observe the fee will improve by applying applying an uncomplicated volume each hour. Jedi. If it have been to decelerate, gravity will improve by applying applying a small volume via fact of plenty much less centrifugal stress, and the radius of the equator will cut back extremely. Days will become longer, and Earth's magnetic field skill will drop. No, the Earth's rotation does no longer stay consistent. actually, tens of millions of years interior the previous, the Earth grew to become spinning quicker than at recent.

Answer 5

A complete rotation takes 24 hours.

Answer 6

The Earth rotates on its' access at a speed of approx 1000 mph. The circumference of the equator is over 24,000 miles.
The Earth goes through space at over 60,000 mph.
The Earth is approx 93 million miles from the Sun.
It's just the maths of it.

Answer 7

1070 Miles per hour at the equator, but it depends on where you are.

Quoting the source: "To find the rotational speed where you live, take the cosine of your latitude, and multiply it by the speed at the equator. For example, the speed at a latitude of 60 degrees, the speed would be cos(60)x1670=835km/hr."

Answer 8

The speed is slightly over 1000 MPH. We arrive at this number by dividing the Earth's circumference, which is 25,000 miles, by how long it takes to complete one rotation, which is 24 hours.

Answer 9

That depends on your latitude. At the equator its about 1000 miles per hour. At the poles it declines to zero. A good way to see this for yourslelf is to spin a globe of the earth--or any spherical object. The surface of the globe will be moving the fastest at the equator, and progressively slower until you get to the poles, where it declines to nothing.

Answer 10

One revolution per day. We know by observing the stars which effectively stay still. Strictly speaking sidereal time would be a more accurate and is about four minutes shorter than a day.