• Question: What causes the Earth to rotate on its axis? Is there a type of force rotating the Earth or does the Earth create its own force?

    Asked by Phantom to Chris, Hayley, Jimi, Maddison, Omur on 16 Mar 2016. This question was also asked by Deeps 2005.
    • Photo: Chris Conselice

      Chris Conselice answered on 16 Mar 2016:

      This is a good question, and the answer is that there is something called “angular momentum” which is a conserved quantity – i.e., it does not go away. What this means is that anything that is spinning will remain spinning forever unless something stops it.

      So the earth has been spinning since it was formed 5 billion years ago. The reason it started spinning is something we don’t know although most material in the universe is rotating for a reason we do not understand.

    • Photo: Jimi Wills

      Jimi Wills answered on 16 Mar 2016:

      To follow up… in its early history, the Earth has been hit by some really big things that have added to it… and this will almost certainly be part of what made it turn the way it does now.

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