Earth rotation

E21210

Earth rotation is the spinning of our planet on its axis, which produces the cycle of day and night and underlies the measurement of time.


Statements (52)

Predicate Object
instanceOf astronomical phenomenon
physical process
rotational motion
affects Coriolis effect
Foucault pendulum precession
ocean currents
trade winds
weather patterns
angularVelocity about 7.2921159×10^-5 radians per second
causes centrifugal acceleration at equator
cycle of day and night
equatorial bulge of Earth
flattening at Earth poles
defines Earth day
sidereal day
solar day
equatorialLinearSpeed about 1670 kilometers per hour
about 465 meters per second
hasApproximatePeriod 23.934 hours
86164 seconds
hasAxis Earth axis
hasType sidereal rotation
solar rotation
historicallyExplainedBy Copernican system
surface form: "Copernican heliocentric model"
influences Earth’s gravity field
Earth’s shape
isDescribedBy angular velocity
isFundamentalFor astronomical coordinate systems
civil time
time zones
timekeeping systems
isMeasuredBy Very Long Baseline Interferometry
atomic time comparisons
satellite laser ranging
isObservedWith Foucault pendulum
star trails in long-exposure photography
isSlowingDown true
occursOn Earth
referenceFrame distant stars
inertial frame
requiresCorrection leap seconds
rotationDirection counterclockwise as seen from north celestial pole
prograde
west-to-east
siderealDayLength 23 hours 56 minutes 4 seconds
slowdownCause gravitational interaction with Moon
tidal friction
slowdownRate about 1.7 milliseconds per century
solarDayLength 24 hours (mean solar day)
underlies definition of a day
measurement of time
wasDebatedIn Scientific Revolution

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Greenwich Mean Time definedRelativeTo Earth rotation