How fast does the earth spin?

Question

Well i just got curious.

I know that it does one revolution per 24 hours.

but like how fast does it go in Miles?

if you can

try to make it simple.

i read someone else's answer

and there were so many numbers i wasn't sure what it said.

so how fast does the earth go?

around the sun

and the spinning?

Answer 1

24 hour ÷ long Earth= Miles

365 days ÷ long space around=Miles

Answer 2

1000 miles per hour at the equator 0 at the poles

Answer 3

if its in mph it goes up to 700 to 900 mph

Answer 4

Basic Answer

The circumference of the Earth at the equator is 25,000 miles. The Earth rotates in about 24 hours. Therefore, if you were to hang above the surface of the Earth at the equator without moving, you would see 25,000 miles pass by in 24 hours, at a speed of 25000/24 or just over 1000 miles per hour.

Multiply by cosine of your latitude to see how fast the Earth is rotating where you are.

Earth is also moving around the Sun at about 67,000 miles per hour.

Advanced Answer

If by "turning" you mean the rotation of the Earth about its axis (where axis just means the straight line between the North and South poles) it is quite easy to figure out how fast any part of the Earth's surface is moving.

The Earth rotates once in a few minutes under a day (23 hours 56 minutes 04. 09053 seconds). This is called the sidereal period (which means the period relative to stars). The sidereal period is not exactly equal to a day because by the time the Earth has rotated once, it has also moved a little in its orbit around the Sun, so it has to keep rotating for about another 4 minutes before the Sun seems to be back in the same place in the sky that it was in exactly a day before.

An object on the Earth's equator will travel once around the Earth's circumference (40,075.036 kilometers) each sidereal day. So if you divide that distance by the time taken, you will get the speed. An object at one of the poles has hardly any speed due to the Earth's rotation. (A spot on a rod one centimeter in circumference for example, stuck vertically in the ice exactly at a pole would have a speed of one centimeter per day!). The speed due to rotation at any other point on the Earth can be calculated by multiplying the speed at the equator by the cosine of the latitude of the point. (If you are not familiar with cosines, I wouldn't worry about that now, but if you can find a pocket calculator which has a cosine button you might like to try taking the cosine of your own latitude and multiplying that by the rotation speed at the equator to get your own current speed due to rotation!).

The Earth is doing a lot more than rotating, although that is certainly the motion we notice most, because day follows night as a result. We also orbit the Sun once a year. The circumference of the Earth's orbit is about 940 million kilometers, so if you divide that by the hours in a year you will get our orbital speed in kilometers per hour. We are also moving with the Sun around the center of our galaxy and moving with our galaxy as it drifts through intergalactic space!

Answer 5

A quick answer, The circumference of the earth is about 25,000 miles. The earth spins 25,000 miles in 24 hours. The speed in miles/h is 25,000/24=1,042miles/hour.

Scientifically, That depends on where on Earth you are standing. At the poles, the Earth hardly spins at all, but as you travel towards the equator, the rotational speed picks up. This makes sense -- as the circumference of a circle increases, a single point along it has to travel faster to complete a revolution in the same amount of time.

The rotational speed of the Earth at the equator is about 1,038 miles per hour. The atmosphere at the equator is also slightly thicker due to rotation, and you weigh slightly less. At mid-latitudes, the speed of the Earth's rotation decreases to 700 to 900 miles per hour.

If the Earth were to stop spinning suddenly, the atmosphere would still be zipping along nicely at around 1,000 miles an hour. As a result, everything not attached to bedrock would pretty much be scoured clean.

If you have any more questions about the Earth's rotation, check out this nifty Ask a Space Scientist page. Looking for a cosmic perspective on how fast the earth is moving? Remember that all questions about motion or speed are only complete with an appropriate frame of reference.

Answer 6

It depends on the latitude. The circumference at the equator is about 25000 miles, so you can easily see that a point on the equator at the earth's surface moves at just over 1000 miles/hr - more precisely, 1040 mi/h.

A point at latitude a moves at that speed multiplied by

cos^2 a.