Page 170 - Science Course 3 (Book 2)

Mo12-L2a: How Does the Earth Move?

Earth makes one complete revolution around the Sun The tilt of Earth’s rotation
every 365.24 days. axis is always in the same
direction by the same
amount.
During half of Earth’s orbit,
the north end of the rotation
axis is toward the Sun and
during the other half the
north end of the rotation axis
is away from the Sun.

Key Concept
Sun rays spread over
How Does the Earth Move? a wide area

What produces Earth’s revolution around the Sun?
Sun rays
spread over
a normal area

Relative to the direction of a beam of sunlight,
Earth’s surface tends to become more tilted as you
move away from the equator.

The energy in a beam of sunlight tends to become
more spread out the farther you travel from the
equator.

Regions near the poles receive less energy than
regions near the equator, which means Earth is
colder at the poles and warmer at the equator.
Earth orbits the Sun because the Sun’s gravity pulls
on the Earth.

A spinning motion
is called rotation.

Equator

The line on
which an object
rotates is the rotation
axis.

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