Chapter 1 The Earth and Maps Section 2 The Movement of the Earth

Chapter 1 The Earth and Maps Section 2 The Movement of the Earth

Rotation of the Earth

The sun rises and sets in the east every day, and day and night alternate with each other. The rotation of the Earth is the movement of the Earth around the Earth's axis. The direction of the Earth's rotation is from west to east; it takes about 24 hours, or one day, to rotate around.

The Earth is an opaque sphere, and at any given time, the sun's rays illuminate only half of the Earth. The hemisphere illuminated by the sun is day; the hemisphere not illuminated by the sun is night. The Earth keeps rotating from west to east, so day and night keep changing, and always usher in the dawn from the east and send off the sunset from the west. The difference in time occurs at different longitudes on the Earth.

Rotation of the Earth

The Earth revolves around the Sun while rotating on its axis. The Earth rotates in the same direction as its rotation, from west to east, and it takes one year to make one revolution.

The Earth's axis is tilted during its rotation and its spatial orientation remains constant. Thus. The Earth's surface is not exposed to the sun in the same way at different locations in its orbit, which results in seasonal changes.

In the northern hemisphere, for example, the ground receives more solar heat around the summer solstice, forming summer; around the winter solstice, the ground receives less solar heat, forming winter; around the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, the ground receives less solar heat than summer and more than winter, forming spring and autumn, respectively. The seasons in the southern hemisphere are opposite to those in the northern hemisphere.

The Earth is a very large sphere, and at the same time, places with different latitudes are exposed to sunlight differently. During the year, different latitudes get more or less solar heat, and there is a difference between hot and cold. People divide the earth's surface into five zones: tropical, northern temperate, southern temperate, northern boreal and southern boreal zones according to the amount of solar heat received by each place.

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