What direction does Earth Both Rotate and Orbit in?

Question

I am drawing a blank here and I should know this but what direction (clockwise or Counter-clockwise) does the Earth first, rotate on its own axis and Second, in the orbital plane around the Sun.

I believe it is Clockwise for both, but as I said, I'm drawing a blank on this one.

Answer 1

counter clockwise if you're looking down at the North Pole.

Sun rises in east and sets in the west, so the surface of the earth must be moving east.  If you look at a globe, that will be counter-clockwise.

Answer 2

Clockwise for both

Answer 3

Imagine you are looking down onto the plane of the ecliptic (the imaginary surface the the Earth moves through as it orbits the sun).

You will see the Earth tilted over, rotating and as it rotates, points that were in shadow move into the illumination of the sun for a period we call "daytime".

By convention, we regard the sun as rising in the east.  It isn't the sun that's doing anything of course.  It is just locations that were in the shadow move into the light.  Those locations have moved from more westerly positions to more easterly positions, with respect to the sun. When we look at a map, it is as though we are looking at the surface of the Earth from above, so moving from west to east.  From our vantage pint above the ecliptic, that west to east movement we see as spinning counter-clockwise.

To understand the rotation around the ecliptic, i.e the orbit, take your cue from the say spring equinox when night and day are of equal length and then the summer solstice when the day is at it's longest.

In the northern hemisphere, at the spring equninox, looking down from above (looking onto the north pole)  the slanted-over axis of the earth will be at a tangent to the orbit. At the summer solstice, the northern hemisphere will be 'pointing' in its slanted-over sort of way, directly towards the sun.

If you try twirling a pen round counter-clockwise with arms outstretched in front of you, pretending it to be the  axis of the earth , and slant it over so that it is parallel to your chest but pointing halfway upwards, also image in the sun is about one foot closer to you than the pen.  Then move the pen so it has the same orientation to your body but it has moved clockwise around the 'sun' by a quarter of a circle.  It is now pointing in its slanted-over way, away from the sun.  If you try moving it to the other side of the 'sun' it is pointing towards it....

SO... because you know the northern hemisphere   summer solstice has a long day and a short night, rather than the other way round,  the Earth must be rotating counter-clockwise around the sun.

SO.. rotation and orbit are both counter-clockwise.

Answer 4

Earth rotates counter clockwise. Any planet that orbits clockwise is considered to be in "retrograde".

Earth doesn't really orbit the sun clockwise or counter clockwise... imagine you are looking at a see-through clock both from font, and behind. While looking at the front, the hands would appear to turn clockwise. Look from behind, and they turn counter clockwise. So it depends on what location you are looking at. And seeing as there is no direction in space, that question is impossible to answer. Perceived from directly above the North pole, the Earth would appear to orbit counter clockwise.

EDIT: Yes, it actually is a hard question to answer. Even the perception of Earth spinning counterclockwise is based on the position you are at... from the North pole, it is counterclockwise, but from the South pole it appears to spin clockwise.

Answer 5

Better follow right hand rule. In a 'thumbs-up' sign of right hand, the thumb points up when the others fingers curl counter-clockwise if you look down the thumb. It means the positive direction (of angular velocity and momentum) is up, when the rotation is CCW. That is in an old fashioned (analog) clock dial, for CCW the direction is 'up' towards the viewer.

Earth's rotation and revolution both are CCW and its vector points to North.  

Answer 6

By definition and agreement, from above a pole of rotation, if the rotation is counter-clockwise (or anti-clockwise) you are looking down on the North pole.

The earth rotates counterclockwise. It travels around the sun in the same fashion.

HTH

Charles