• Question: why does earth spin/rotate

    Asked by dallynmccrorie to Ben, Clare, Ezzy, Mario, Sam on 15 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by elisestubbs1.
    • Photo: Mario Campanelli

      Mario Campanelli answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      because it is a relic of a rotation of the ball of gas that created the solar system. The moon instead spins at the same rate at which it rotates (we only see one face of the moon) because it is not completely spherical and this configuration is the one that minimises the energy.

    • Photo: Elizabeth Pearson

      Elizabeth Pearson answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      The cloud of stuff that made up the earth was rotating. When the earth formed it kept spinning because of something called angular momentum. If something is spinning it has to keep spinning until something stops it.

Comments