Page 27 - Geography for Secondary Schools Student’s Book Form One

Geography for Secondary Schools
Student’s Book Form One

The North Pole is about 1280 kilometres per hour. In the
meantime, at the poles, the speed is zero
(0) kilometre per hour. There are several
pieces of evidence which show that the
Earth is rotating. These include:
West to East Sunrise and sunset: The Sun is located
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at the centre of solar system; it does not
move. Instead, as the earth rotates from
the West to the East, the Sun appears to
rise from the East and set to the West. It is
this movement of the Earth which explains
sunrise and sunset.

Day and night: The most apparent evidence
The South Pole of the earth’s rotation is the cycle of day
Figure 3.1: Earth’s rotation and night. The Earth is a sphere. As it spins
on its axis, different parts of the planet
Exercise 3.1 face the Sun at different times, resulting
into daylight in one area and darkness in
1. Explain the concept of the earth’s the other.
rotation. Shape of the Earth: The Earth is not a
2. Explain the importance of the earth’s perfect sphere. It is slightly flattened at the
rotation in your daily life. poles due to the absence of centrifugal force
3. Differentiate between the earth’s axis and strong gravitational pull. Meanwhile
and the earth’s line of perpendicular. it bulges at the equator because of strong
centrifugal force and weaker gravitational
pull. All these factors are caused by unequal
Evidence of the earth’s rotation rotational speed at the poles and at the
equator, respectively.
Activity 3.2 Star Trails: When you look at the night sky,

Search for evidence of the earth’s rotation stars appear to make a circular movement
from library and other reliable online around the North or South Poles, from East
sources. to West. In fact, the stars do not move, this

The earth’s rotation changes from no happens because the Earth is rotating on its
axis from the West to East.
movement at the poles to very fast Time Zones: The division of the Earth into
movement at the equator. We do not feel different time zones (24 hours) is based on
the motion because we move with it. At the the earth’s rotation. As the Earth spins on its
equator every point of the earth’s surface axis, different regions experience daylight
moves eastwards at about 1600 kilometres and darkness at different times.
per hour. We do not feel this motion because
we move with the earth’s movement at a Coriolis Effect: The Coriolis Effect causes
constant speed. At latitude 40°, the speed moving objects, like winds and ocean
currents to curve or be deflected due to

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