Movements of the Earth : Revolution and Rotation of the Earth
The earth revolves around the sun.
Besides this it also rotates on its own axis. Thus the earth has two motions,
the rotation and the revolution.
Rotation
The earth rotates on its axis from
west to east. The axis is an imaginary line passing through the northern and
the southern poles of the earth. The rotation of the earth is completed in
about 24 hours and it is called the daily motion of the earth. This motion is
responsible for the occurrence of day and night.
As a result of the apparent motion
of the sun, the appearance of the night sky as seen from the earth changes from
day to day.
Revolution
The movement of the earth around the
sun in its orbit is called revolution. This movement of the earth is also from
west to east. The period of revolution is one year (365 1/4 days). The orbit of
the earth around the sun is elliptical and not circular.
An interactive animation demonstrating the rotation of the Earth and how day and night arise. Two views are shown, illustrating how a point on the Earth experiences day and night, with the time and sunrise and sunset indicated.
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