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Re: [Phys-l] earth's rotation

On Jan 4, 2008, at 7:43 PM, Bernard Cleyet wrote:
It's not obvious to me that climate would be much changed if the orbit
reversed also (WRT the "fixed" stars). Please elaborate.


Viewed from above ("North" of the ecliptic plane), the fact that Earth rotates CCW and revolves CCW leads to a 24-h solar day (23 h 56 m with respect to the stars). It takes four minutes more than a complete rotation to bring the Sun back to the same meridian.

If you reversed our direction of revolution around the Sun, the day would be eight minutes shorter. Maybe that would result in some climate change?


Mike

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Michael Porter
Colonel By Secondary School
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada