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Welcome to our Physics lesson on Earth Rotation around its Own Axis, this is the eighth lesson of our suite of physics lessons covering the topic of Sun and Planetary Motion, you can find links to the other lessons within this tutorial and access additional physics learning resources below this lesson.
The Earth completes one rotation around its own axis in 23 h 56 min, a figure computed using stars as a (stationary) reference frame. This value corresponds to the duration of an Earth day in respect to the stars. This means that Earth rotates by 360° around its own axis in one day. This rotation occurs from West to East of our galaxy. Hence, it seems that the Sun rotates in the sky (horizon) from East to West.
On the other hand, when the Sun is considered as reference frame, there is another factor to be taken into account. Thus, when one day is completed, there is also a slight movement of Earth around the Sun in addition to rotation of Earth around its axis. This causes a delay of 1/365 of a day which corresponds to (1/365) × 24 h = 0.0657 h = 4 minutes. This value is added to the day duration when starts are taken as reference frame and thus, we obtain a value of 24 h for the duration of one day when the Sun is taken as a reference frame. This is the value of day duration we use when measuring the time elapsed in our daily activities. It is known as the solar day.
You have reached the end of Physics lesson 22.2.8 Earth Rotation around its Own Axis. There are 10 lessons in this physics tutorial covering Sun and Planetary Motion, you can access all the lessons from this tutorial below.
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