Category Kids Queries

There are two reasons: gravity and the fact that you’re traveling at the same speed as the ground beneath your feet. Just as air-plane passengers don’t sense the forward motion of the aircraft they’re riding in (unless it suddenly speeds up or slows down), we don’t notice the rate of Earth’s rotation. We’re traveling along Earth’s surface as it spins and held to the surface by its gravity – along with the atmosphere around us, the bicycles and cars on the road, and the birds in the sky.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t observe the Earth spinning from right here on the ground. The Sun and Moon rise in the east and set in the west because of the direction we’re rotating in. If you set up a video camera pointed at the night sky, you’ll be able to see the stars moving, too. From our frame of reference, it looks like those objects are sliding past us. Remember: that’s just how we see it. From the Sun’s point of view, we’re all spinning in circles.

Picture Credit : Google

Along the Equator – the imaginary line halfway between the North and South poles – Earth rotates at 1,037 mph (1,670 kph), a speed rivaling that of a fighter jet at full cruise. That’s where the Earth is widest along its axis, so any point along the Equator has a greater distance to travel during each daily rotation than any point closer to the poles. Still confused? Think of a merry-go-round. The horses on the outside have a greater distance to travel around the carousel – and thus move faster – than the horses on the inside.

The speed of the Earth’s rotation changes as you go North or South away from the equator. Finally, when you reach one of the Earth’s poles, you’re taking a whole day to just turn once in place – that’s not very fast.

Picture Credit : Google

Earth’s rotation is actually slowing down over time. This is caused by “tidal forces” between the Earth and the Moon. The side of the Earth that is closest to the Moon as it rotates is pulled more strongly by the tidal force of the Moon; the side of the Earth that is farther away from the Moon is pulled more weakly. The tidal forces pull on the water on the Earth, and this is what causes the tides to go in and out. Scientists think that the Moon was formed when a large space object collided with the Earth. It knocked out a large chunk of rock that became the Moon. When the Moon first formed, it was much closer to the Earth. As the Moon’s gravity pulls on Earth, causing the tides, this creates friction that slows down how fast the Earth can rotate: this means that the Earth’s rotation is slowing down a little bit each year!

Picture Credit : Google

Earth’s rotation is a side effect of the formation of our solar system, which started as a massive cloud of gas and dust roughly 4.6 billion years ago. The cloud began to rotate as it scrunched together under its own gravity. The material at the center eventually become the sun, while whirlpools of dust and gas farther out spun faster and faster until they formed into planets. With nothing to stop its spinning motion, Earth retained the rotation from its early days.

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Actually, it’s not perfectly round. It’s an “oblate spheroid,’’ a sphere that’s slightly wider at the Equator than at the Poles. Gravity squashed Earth and the solar system’s other planets into spherical shapes back when they formed from clouds of dust and gas. Earth’s rotation is what causes its slight bulge around the middle.

It is believed that the earth, like all of the planets in our solar system, formed 4.6 billion years ago, when asteroids began crashing into each other and then stuck together. When they slammed into each other they made everything spin.  The more it was spinning, the more closely packed everything became, until it started looking like a round ball.  The bigger it got, the stronger the ‘gravity’ and that made it push and hold together even more.

There are other things that happen on the earth that can make its shape change. Volcanic eruptions under the ocean as well as on land, can be quite violent. It causes the earth to shake and shift, bringing the hot magma from under the surface and creating new land.  Deep beneath the earth there is a lot of pressure pushing to the top.  This pressure can push up and create new mountains. All of these can cause the earth to alter its shape.

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Earth is a special spot in the solar system for so many reasons – its sprawling continents, its blue seas, and its nearly limitless variety of ice-cream flavors. But one earthly thing stands out above the rest: its Earthlings. Ours is the only planet currently known to harbor life. In fact, Earth’s unique combination of air, water, and land nurtures life of every sort, from microscopic amoebas to submarine-size blue whales.

The Earth is the only inner planet (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) to have one large satellite, the Moon.  Mars has two very tiny moons.  Mercury and Venus have none.

The Earth is fragile.  Its surface is split into plates (tectonic plates) which float on a rocky mantle – the layer between the surface of the earth, its crust, and its hot liquid core.  The inside of the Earth is active and earthquakes, volcanoes and mountain building takes place along the boundaries of the tectonic plates. 

As a result of the Earth’s geological activity (the volcanoes and earthquakes) the surface of the Earth has far fewer craters than the surface of planets such as Mars, Venus and Mercury or the surface of the Moon.  The craters have sunk down or been worn away by wind and rain over millions of years. 

Picture Credit : Google