Earth's Rotation

Earth's Rotation and the Apparent Daily Motion of the Sky

The earth rotates about an imaginary line that passes through the North and South Poles of
the planet. This line is called the axis of rotation. Earth rotates about this axis once each day
(approximately 24 hours). Although you most likely already knew that fact, there is a slight
complication most people are not aware of.

More specifically, our rotation period (the time elapsed for one rotation) with respect to the
stars is called a sidereal day. A sidereal day is 24 sidereal hours, or 23 hours and 56 minutes
on a normal clock. Our clock time is based on the earth's rotation with respect to the sun
from solar noon to solar noon. This is a solar day, and it is divided into 24 hours. Because
Earth travels about 1 / 365 of the way around the sun during one day, there is a small
difference between solar time and sidereal time.

The earth takes about 1/365 of a day or about 4 minutes more to get into the </FONT>same
position with respect to the sun after it reaches the same position with respect to the stars. We
use sun-based time because it is more important to most of us whether the Sun is up than
whether a given star is up. Those who care which star is up (like astronomers) may also use
sidereal time.

1) The sidereal day is shorter than the solar day because the earth
rotates and revolves in the same sense - counterclockwise in the
diagram above. Venus rotates in the opposite direction to its
revolution - is its sidereal day longer or shorter than its solar day?

Note: Astronomers and other scientists sometimes use ordinary words

but with different or more limited meaning attached. The words
"rotate" and "revolve" are examples of this: To an astronomer,
"rotate" = spin around an axis that runs through you, and "revolve" = orbit about another
object. One time around = one revolution. In the 1500's Copernicus published a radical
theory of the solar system in which he proposed that the planets revolve about the sun. His
book "on the revolutions of the planets" changed how we view our universe. From its title
we get the word "revolution" meaning "action giving rise to radical change in society".

So which way does the world turn? One way to visualize how
the earth turns is to hold out your right fist with your thumb
extended and pointing straight up (the traditional hitchhiker
fist). If you visualize that your thumb points north, then your
fingers are curling in the direction of Earth's rotation.
Because of this easy set up, we say that the earth rotates in a
"right-handed" manner (because you are using your right hand
as a model).

You can take this model a step

further by visualizing that the base of your thumb is where Europe
and Africa are located (Europe is above Africa of course when
North is up). The Atlantic Ocean would be on your fingers and the
flat part of your fist by your knuckles are the Americas. The back
of your hand is the Pacific Ocean, which leaves Asia to rest where
your wrist is. If you keep this simple model in mind, you will
always have an Earth-globe to check directions by. This is not so
different from counting using your fingers.

For an observer at a fixed position on Earth, the rotation of the earth makes it appear as if the
sky is revolving around the earth. In other words, if you are standing for long enough in a
field at night, it looks like the sky is moving, not you. This motion is called "apparent diurnal
motion." "Diurnal" means having to do with a day, in the sense of a 24-hour period.

Please note that the word "day" has two popular meanings, which can lead to confusion in
astronomical contexts. Day can mean when it is light out, as in "day or night." Or, it can
indicate a 24-hour period. Here we only use the second meaning. You might want to be
careful to do the same.

In the diagram to the right we show

the earth as seen from space with
Ames, Iowa, the home of Iowa
State, at the top. This means that a
person in Ames would be standing
with his or her head towards the top
of the diagram. This picture may
seem confusing at first because we
like to think of north as always
being up, but remember that up and
down are arbitrary designations in
space.

People in Australia, in the Southern

Hemisphere of our planet, certainly
do not consider themselves as being upside down.
The earth rotates around the North South (N-S) line, so that if we watched it rotate, the
parts at the bottom left -- Indonesia, Australia -- would move up and to the right being
parallel to the dashed line (the equator).