Rotation and Revolution

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​It's a massive ball of hot gas in the sky. We need it for photosynthesis and the seasons.

​Different than a revolution in Social Studies, this kind of revolution is talking about planets like Earth going around the sun.

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It takes the Earth 365 days (one year) to make one revolution.​

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​You can also use the words "revolve" and "orbit" to talk about this process.

​The Earth also rotates. Rotate means to spin around a center point, which is called an axis.

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It takes the Earth 24 hours (a day) to make one rotation​.

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​When something rotates, it is spinning on an axis, which is an invisible line that goes down the middle of the object.

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​As you can see from the picture to the right, Earth is titled on its axis. The Earth isn't perfectly situated straight up and down. It's tilted on its axis. This gives us our seasons.

​So we've talked about revolving, rotating, and what an axis is, but how do those things apply to you?

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​Well, without these things acting the way they do, we wouldn't have day or night. We wouldn't have seasons. If you lived on the side of the Earth facing away from the sun, you would always be cold and in the dark.

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Or you could be facing towards it and never get to enjoy snow!