Sandburg Center for Sky Awareness
A Fairfax County Public Schools Planetarium
SCSA Virtual Globe
Planet Earth spins around an imaginary axis of
rotation
once every 24 hours (shown center panel, below); the word used to describe
Earth's daily motion depends upon your viewpoint. Viewed from
above the North Pole, the Earth appears to rotate counterclockwise
(shown left panel, below); viewed from above the South Pole, the Earth appears to rotate clockwise (shown right panel,
below). Observe that most of the world's landmasses are located in the
Northern Hemisphere (contrast the left & right panels, below), therefore
most people learn that the Earth rotates
counterclockwise.
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| View from North
Pole |
View from
Equator-to-Poles |
View from South
Pole |
© Copyright 2004-2010 Walter Sanford. All rights
reserved.
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and My Shadow - Making the Sun-Earth Connection | SCSA Home
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