• Question: @ everyone what causes the earth to rotate and then therefore cause night and day . I am so confused please help me

    Asked by 12kdavy to Sarah, Izzy, Clem, Amelia on 13 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Isabel Webb

      Isabel Webb answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      Planets in our Solar System formed about 4.6 billion years ago from big clouds of gas and dust. The effect of gravity on these gases and dust clouds made them start to collapse, and this made them start spinning. These clouds eventually formed planets – but there is no friction in space, so there are no forces to stop the planet spinning – so the planets keep spinning forever. Our Earth spins once every 24 hours.

      The Earth rotates around the sun, and so there is always one side of the Earth facing the sun – but only half of the Earth will be able to see the sun at any moment. As the Earth spins, each side of the Earth sees the sun for some time, at which time it is in the light and it is day. As the Earth spins it lets the other half of the Earth see the light, so the half that was in the day is then in the dark and so the night. This occurs over 24hours, because this is how long it takes the Earth to spin.

    • Photo: Amelia Frizell-Armitage

      Amelia Frizell-Armitage answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      This is a really complicated topic and a big question that confuses me also! Try typing “Why Does the Earth Spin” or “How Does The Earth Spin” into YouTube. There are loads of really great videos there that try and explain this.

      You might have to watch a couple before you find one that you like and makes sense to you 🙂

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