Is the earths spin about the axis the p n p s axis direct or retrograte? explain your anwer?

Question

is the earths spin about the axis the p n p s axis direct or retrograte? explain your anwer

Answer 1

I don't know who wrote that question but it is certainly meant as a trick. Because the earth always spins around its north and south poles ... when you define those as the earth axis!

If you refer to the present north and south pole, the earth has been known to have moved but by continental drift; it is impossible to take an absolute point of reference on a sphere that has a drifting crust on the top of a liquid core.

If you refer to the magnetic poles, they move all the time, hence the yearly correction needed to read magnetic bearings on maps.

If you refer to the earth axis in relation to the star background, yes, the earth retrogrades or wobbles in its axis: the north star (Polaris) won't stay always at the geographic north. It is called the precession.

Last, if you take the word 'retrograde' as its meaning: going in the other direction, then three planets in our solar system are said to retrograde: Venus, Uranus and Pluto.

But please, understand that it means: as opposed to the earth and not clockwise or anti-clockwise as I sometimes read: Looking at the earth from above the north pole, we spin anti-clockwise. Looking at the south pole, we spin clockwise. It's all relative to the plane of observation.

Answer 2

Michel's answer, though not incorrect, makes the matter unnecessarily complex, I think.

Direct rotation means, in this case, in the same direction as revolution.  Whether you view from above the north or south ecliptic pole makes no difference: The Earth's rotation is in the same direction as its revolution around the Sun.  Its spin is, therefore, direct.

The other variations (e.g., nutation, continental drift, precession) are very slow changes that have little significant effect on the daily motion of the Earth.  They have only long-term effects, and they would not change the answer to your question.

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