2007-01-21 21:58:59 · 5 answers · asked by Rocky82 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
God.
The world is on his finger tip and He spins it like a basketball.
His greatness is how He does it at an angle.
2007-01-21 22:04:28 · answer #1 · answered by Ta Dah! 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Short answer: angular momentum.
Long answer: the Earth is still spinning from the impact 4+ billion years ago with another protoplanet. This impact created the moon. At the time, the Earth's "day" was only 6 hours long. The spin has been slowing down ever since. This slowing down is caused by gravitational drag by the moon and the sun. The spin will keep getting slower in the future, and thus, the day will keep getting longer. However, the sun will consume the Earth before the spin comes to a complete halt.
2007-01-22 05:01:30 · answer #2 · answered by Egghead 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The last spin that established the approx 1000mph speed of the equator area was, are you ready? A near miss by a smaller planet about 10,000 years ago. It heaved up the mountain chain- the Pyrenees, Alps, Himalayas. Notice that chain is parallel to the equator and is in the form of a great circle!! As it zipped by, it set up the rotation spin of the earth that exists to the present. The first near miss pass-by heaved up the other great mountain chain( also a great circle) and froze the thousands of mammoths causing their extinction. The second pass by(above) left a large number of mammoths frozen in what then became the north pole and established the current rotation speed of the Earth.
People back then thought it was the angry Gods that did it.
2007-01-21 22:45:43 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
When the matter that formed the earth coalesced, it didn't come together and stop. It formed the earth from an accretion disk which had inherent motion around a central point. That central point is our earth's core. Every object in motion will stay in motion. All the particles' momentum accumulated too and is still moving. Now, they're all simply moving together and we call it spin.
2007-01-21 22:06:37 · answer #4 · answered by quntmphys238 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Its a push/pull dance. The gravity of the sun pulling us in.. and the centrifigual force of rotation pushing us out. We're fortunate enough to find a balance in the middle... and the comfort of night and day as we spin helplessly along.
2007-01-21 22:05:29 · answer #5 · answered by bakfanlin 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋