How long does it take for the Earth to rotate once?

Question

days or week or months or year?

Answer 1

Einstein is supposed to have said that a theory should be as simple as possible, but no simpler. In the case of Earth's rotation, describing its motion as "once every 24 hours" is too simple. Even the answer "23 hours 56 minutes 4.091 seconds" is just a starting point. That number is an average, and every day is a slightly different length by a few microseconds.
To see a graph showing the variations in the length of Earth's day (one rotation), go to:
http://geology.about.com/library/weekly/aa090797.htm

Answer 2

It takes the Earth 23 hours and 56 min to rotate once around it self. This is called a sidereal day.
However we define one day as the time it takes before the sun is at the same position on the sky. It takes 24 hours 0 min and 0 sec and is called a solar day.

During one rotation (one sidereal day) the sun travels also 1/365 of the path around the sun. So after 23 hours 56 min the sun have moved on the sky, and the Earth need extra 4 min before before the sun is on the same position.

Answer 3

This interval is known as a "sidereal" day, which is 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.06 seconds."


"The time it takes the Earth to rotate once about its axis is a little shorter than the 24-hour "solar" day we're accustomed to. A "solar" day is defined as the average time from high noon to high noon, that is, the interval between the times when the Sun is highest in the sky. Because the Earth orbits the Sun, by the time it completes one revolution, the location on the earth closest to the sun has shifted a bit. The Earth then needs to rotate a little more to make it line up again. The time for one true rotation is the interval between the times that a distant star is highest in the sky, "fixed star to fixed star." This interval is known as a "sidereal" day, which is 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.06 seconds."

Answer 4

The earth rotates once every 24 hours. The trick is in days per year is 365 days and 6 hours.

Answer 5

scythian1950 has the terrific suited answer. It takes 23 hours fifty six minutes and four seconds for the Earth to rotate 360 tiers (one sidereal day) and approximately 24 hours to bypass from midday to midday (one photograph voltaic day). If it takes 365 a million/4 days to orbit the sunlight, then the Earth has to rotate almost 361 tiers to come back to midday. with regard to the only ingredient I could upload is that 24 hours is the recommend photograph voltaic day, or the nicely-known quantity of time it takes the Earth to rotate from community zenith (midday) to community zenith (midday). by fact the Earth's orbit is elliptical and the Earth travels faster at perihelion than aphelion, a photo voltaic day is longer interior the winter than interior the summertime. Perihelion happens the 1st week of January and aphelion the 1st week of July. (Measuring the quantity of time it takes to get from midday to midday isn't the comparable as measuring the quantity of daytime, which relies upon on the lean of the Earth's axis, no longer the time it takes to get from zenith to zenith).

Answer 6

It takes 24 hours (1 day) for the Earth to ROTATE once on its axis.

It takes 365 days, or 52 weeks, or 12 months for the Earth to REVOLVE around the sun.

Thought maybe that'd help you out a bit. =]

Answer 7

damn thats pretty common knowldge man it takes 23 hours 58 minutes 26 seconds to make a full rotation

Answer 8

1.around the sun it takes about 365 days

2. on its axis 23 hours and 55 minures.

Answer 9

...to rotate once around its axis takes approx. 23h56m04s (a sidereal day lasts 24h03m56.556s), to revolve once around the Sun takes approx.: 31 556 952,9747 s, (in UTC units).

Answer 10

Technically it is 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds. Which is why we have daylight savings time....and has to do with leap year (which is more orbital period)...we have to keep up with the lack of a full 24 hours.