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Earth Rotation

Earth orbit
Spinning Earth
Credit: Wikiscient

The Earth spins around every 24 hours - once a day, which means that all the people living on the Earth will see both night and day during those 24 hours. The Earth spins around at over 1,500 km/s - that's over 14,000 times faster than a Formula 1 car at top speed!

The Earth rotates from west to east, which makes the Sun appear to rise in the east and set in the west, but it is due to the Earth spinning rather than the Sun moving. It is daytime on the side facing the Sun, and night on the side facing away.

The tidal effects of the Moon is actually slowing down the rotation of the Earth, but only by ~2 millionths of a second over 100 years.

To see some movies showing what we see when the Earth spins, click here.