To understand the first part, imagine you\u2019re looking at the Earth top-down, so you see a circle with the North Pole in the middle.<\/p>
Now imagine drawing a series of concentric circles on the planet, such that the innermost circle is a mere dot (the North Pole) and the outermost circle is the equator.<\/p>
Those imaginary circles, in our 2D picture, translate in the real world to lines of latitude.<\/p>
- What would happen if Earth stopped spinning?<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <\/div>
![\"Earth](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-1375301970-e004b38.jpg\")
Credit: MirageC \/ Getty Images <\/figcaption> <\/figure> <\/div> <\/div> Now imagine two points representing locations on Earth: one on the outer circle (i.e. at the equator) and one on a circle, say, halfway from the centre to the outer circumference (equating to a latitude of around 45\u00b0N).<\/p>
Earth takes a day (or, strictly speaking, 23 hours 56 minutes and four seconds) to spin on its axis, which means that in 24 hours\u2019 time, each of those points needs to have returned to its current location.<\/p>
That gives our two circles 24 hours to rotate.<\/p>
![\"It](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1356207176.jpg\")
It takes us longer to travel via Earth’s spin around the bigger circles closer to the equator, which means we’re rotating much quicker. Credit: mikroman6 \/ Getty Images <\/figcaption> <\/figure> But our location on the equator has a very large circle to get around, while the one at 45\u00b0 sits on a much smaller circle and needs to cover much less ground in the same time period.<\/p>
For this reason, the actual speed at which you\u2019re travelling around in space due to Earth spin varies considerably.<\/p>
At the 45\u00b0N point, that speed of Earth’s spin, 1,600km\/h, drops down to just 1,180kmh (733 mph), and by the time you get to the North Pole you\u2019re just about standing still.<\/p>
The same applies to other planets, too, but that\u2019s quite a complicated idea, so to avoid confusion, when talking about a planet\u2019s rotational velocity, the figure at the planet\u2019s equator is the one scientists quote.<\/p>
And, rather alarmingly for us, NASA says climate change is slowing Earth’s spin and making days longer<\/a>.<\/p>
![\"Earth](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1994981956.jpg\")
Earth doesn’t just spin. It also orbits the Sun. Credit: A Mokhtari \/ Getty Images <\/figcaption> <\/figure> Earth spins and orbits<\/strong><\/h2>
But how fast Earth spins isn’t all you need to consider, because you\u2019re not just travelling around Earth\u2019s axis at roughly 1,600 km\/h.<\/p>
![\"Image](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/02\/sagittarius-a-black-hole-chandra.jpeg\")