Please HELP!?

Question

Explain why the rotation of the Earth could be considered a scientific theory. Use that to help explain the motion of stars in the night sky......

Answer 1

Everything is relative to a frame of reference. If you are standing on the surface of the Earth, there is no rotation with respect to your frame of reference. There are, however, some phenomena that require a different frame of reference to explain. For example, the rising and setting of the sun. Another is the tendency for water to spin in a drain. Also, the stars changing position in the night sky.

If you set a frame of reference that is on the sun, you will note that our Earth rotates on an axis that is tilted with respect to the orbit it has around the sun. That is, the Earth is moving with respect to the sun. You will also note that the other stars appear to be fixed with respect to your position on the sun. This is theory because it isn't possible to position oneself on the sun to make empirical measurements.

It was through the relative measurements of the other celestial bodies, including the sun and stars that we built a model that explains the relative motions. That is, the earth is spinning on an axis in an orbit around the sun. Using this model, we also discovered other planets orbiting our sun with similar dynamic behavior.

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