Science

[peepers]

At what speed does the Earth spin on its Axis. PLEASE?

[Quizmonster]

Very roughly, the equator is 24,000 miles long and - luckily - it takes 24 hours to spin around completely. So, 1,000 miles per hour.
Some more scientifically-minded person will doubtless appear here soon and point out that it is actually 948.76 mph or 1037.53 mph, but the nice round figure is pretty close.

[sddsddean]

Although QM is quite correct, you have to remember that you are talking about the angular speed of a sphere. So, if you were standing on the equator you would be doing about 1000mph, but if you were standing at a pole you would be doing 0mph, but still turning at the rate of 360 degree / 24 hrs. In the UK you would be doing (from memory!) about 560mph.

[kempie]

As sddsddean states, the approximate answer given only holds true for a point at sea-level and on the equator. As you move towards the poles and/or into a valley this value will decrease; up a mountain the value will increase.

Without the question containing specific parameters the only way to indicate the speed of spin of the Earth (in other terms, the rate of rotation) is by either it's angular frequency, frequency, or period.

Angular frequency
= 2π rads per day = 7.29246206 � 10^-5 rads/s

Frequency
= 1 turn per day = 1.16063138 � 10^-5 turns/s

Period
= 23hrs 56mins = 86160 s

[buildersmate]

The answer to the question asked is one revolution per day.

[gen2]

No, you are only considering the solar day which is not a complete revolution. Relative to distant stationary stars the sidereal day as roughly 24 hours and 4 minutes. The answer is therefore that the earth rotates once every 24hrs 4mins.

[kempie]

gen2 - you went 4 mins in the wrong direction; a solar day is slightly greater than 1 revolution...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidereal_day

[Quizmonster]

See? I told you, Peepers! (This comment is a joke, by the way!)

[nucleardream]

right - it's 4 minutes behind 24 hours (i.e. 23 h 56 m). That equates to about 6 hours short in every calendar year. That's why they've included an extra day in a leap year every four years to make up for the time lost (6 h x 4 y = 24 h (1 extra full day)

[heathfield]

QM's right in round figures
Sd's right, it depends on the latitude.
Kempie's right, it depends on your height difference from a mean level, (though his 'Period' should be 86164.09890369732 seconds).
Gen2's got the right idea, but the correction was in the wrong direction so only 8/10
Bm's right, but misses out 'sidereal' for his 'day'.
Nd's right in round figures.
Isn't this fun? lol.

[buildersmate]

So who is Peepers going to give the three stars to, then?

[peepers]

Thanks everybody - the three stars go to Quizmonster for speed of answer!

[Pebbilita]

Hi everyone this is my first question...it relates to Nucleardream�s comment� if we get another 24 hours every leap year, we get an extra 4 minutes on that day. So should we be having an extra extra day every 360 years? (i.e. all the extra 4 minutes that make up a day)