HOW FAST DOES THE EARTH SPIN

When we talk about the Earth's speed, we have to keep in mind that speed is always measured in context to or in comparison to another relative object. That means that motion can be measured only when there is a reference point. For example, the Earth's speed can be calculated only in context to its own axis, the Milky way, the Solar System, the surrounding celestial objects or the Sun. Therefore figuring out how fast does the Earth revolve around the sun will involve using the Astronomical Unit (AU). The Earth takes one year or 365 days to complete one single revolution around the Sun. The Earth spans 93 million miles on its orbit to revolve around the Sun, the Earth revolves at 30 km/sec or at 18.5 miles/sec around the Sun. Read more about the distance from Earth to Sun here.

The Earth spins around its axis every 23 hours 56 minutes and 04.09053 seconds which is approximately to be taken as 24 hours. The axis is an imaginary line that crosses through the center of the Earth from the North pole to the South pole and back. In order to know how fast does the Earth spin, we need to find out how fast does the Earth spin at the equator. The way to find that out is to find out the total circumference of the Earth at the equator which happens to be 40,070 Km which is equivalent to 25,040 miles. Now simply divide the:

Circumference of the Earth    =  25,040   =  1,038 mph or 1674.66 kph
Time taken for one revolution    24

Therefore 1,038 mph or 1674.66 kph is the answer to the question as to how fast does the Earth spin in mph at the equator. Though this speed based on how fast does the Earth spin in meters per second, must not be considered as a constant, as the Earth's speed changes from one location to the other as it varies with the distance from the equator to either of the poles. The reason being that at the equator the Earth's circumference is far greater and thus it has plenty of distance to travel around its axis, however as you reach closer to the North pole the distance for traveling reduces drastically. Learn more about the Earth by reading what causes day and night here.

At the north pole for instance the Earth's speed falls to about a mere one centimeter for every 24 hours! Basically figuring out how fast does the Earth rotate depends on the latitudinal location of the place where you may be situated at. Though the distance traveled by us, decrease as and when we go towards either the North pole or the end of the South pole. For example the Earth's speed as calculated from 'Prudhoe Bay', Alaska is only 355 mph!

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