why does the earth rotate?

Question

why does it rotate?

Answer 1

Any object that rotates does so because it is pushed from opposite directions. When the universe formed, every particle was pushed away from the center. As the energy was lost from moving away, and as the particles slowed down, some of the particles fell together. As more and more particles fell into these clusters, stars were formed. As the stars formed, smaller clusters formed and were pulled toward the stars. The difference in the pull from the star and the push from the original explosion causes rotation.

Answer 2

NOTHING TO DO WITH GRAVITY (people make things up)

Nobody really hit the answer: the fact is the state of everything in the Universe is that it moves and rotates in one form or the other.

To not rotate would be the exception.

(By the way, if someone comes back and says the moon does not rotate, then that is wrong. It does not rotate in relation to Earth, but from every other aspect of space it rotates in about 28 days)

Answer 3

The Earth rotates due to the fact that the core is always spinning (in the opposite direction as the surface,) but it is hard to say why it spins, but be thankful that it spins.
Without the spinning of the Earth, there would be no magnetic field to protect us from the Suns radiation, there would be no tides, there would be no life on the side of the Earth that never sees the Sun, and the side that did see the Sun would be so hot that nothing would exist on it.
So even though I don't know why it spins, just be thankful that it spins!

Answer 4

It is coasting on momentum left over from its formation. There is no friction in space to slow it down, so it can go on coasting at the same speed forever. But there is a small amount of friction from the tides due to the gravity of the Moon which is slowing the rotation rate by a very small amount, so that in millions of years a day will be 25 hours long and in millions more years it will be 26 hours long, and so on.

Answer 5

Stars and planets form in the collapse of huge clouds of interstellar gas and dust. The material in these clouds is in constant motion, and the clouds themselves are in motion, orbiting in the aggregate gravity of the galaxy. As a result of this movement, the cloud will most likely have some slight rotation as seen from a point near its center. This rotation can be described as angular momentum, a conserved measure of its motion that cannot change. Conservation of angular momentum explains why an ice skater spins more rapidly as she pulls her arms in. As her arms come closer to her axis of rotation, her speed increases and her angular momentum remains the same. Similarly, her rotation slows when she extends her arms at the conclusion of the spin.

As an interstellar cloud collapses, it fragments into smaller pieces, each collapsing independently and each carrying part of the original angular momentum. The rotating clouds flatten into protostellar disks, out of which individual stars and their planets form. By a mechanism not fully understood, but believed to be associated with the strong magnetic fields associated with a young star, most of the angular momentum is transferred into the remnant accretion disk. Planets form from material in this disk, through accretion of smaller particles.

In our solar system, the giant gas planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) spin more rapidly on their axes than the inner planets do and possess most of the system's angular momentum. The sun itself rotates slowly, only once a month. The planets all revolve around the sun in the same direction and in virtually the same plane. In addition, they all rotate in the same general direction, with the exceptions of Venus and Uranus. These differences are believed to stem from collisions that occurred late in the planets' formation. (A similar collision is believed to have led to the formation of our moon.)

Answer 6

As I understand it when the earth formed from gas and dust in orbit around the sun gravity slowly pulled it all together.

Now this matter is all in orbit around the sun, moving generally in one direction, so you can see that as it comes together the leading particles will have slightly more velocity towards the sun than those slightly behind, this will have the net effect effect of making the mass of the earth spin slightly in the direction of its orbit.

This rate of spin is increased as the gases and particles clump together due to conservation of angular momentum (think of an ice skater spinning and pulling in her arms, she spins faster).

Venus spins backwards (Very slowly) and this is thought to be due to some cataclysmic event in it's past.

Answer 7

Newtons law of gravitation. The earth rotates because
of the great gravitational pull of the sun.

Answer 8

Because if it didn't it would loose speed at the end of the pitch and fall off as it crosses home plate.

Answer 9

so it gets cooked evenly

Answer 10

Cause everything's chaos baby...!!
You try throwing a baseball at 60mph without making it spin at all......