Question

The axis of rotation of the earth is __________________.
A. Vertical
B. Horizontal
C. Tilted
D. Both A and B

Answer 1

Hint: The axis (that we are talking about) is an imaginary line that passes through the centre of the earth. It has two surfaces (or ends) which are known as – the North Pole and the South Pole and it takes (earth) 24 hours to complete one rotation along the axis. The earth rotates around its axis at the rate of about 1,600 km an hour.

Complete Answer:
- Rotation can be described as a circular movement of an object around a centre of rotation, in the case of earth the line is invisible and is known as the rotation axis. If we look into the history of the earth’s rotation the ancient Greeks from the Pythagorean school of thought believed in the rotation of earth rather than that of heaven.
- The concept of earth’s rotation had had a very amusing past as many believed that the earth did not rotate but the stars did.
- The axis has an angle of 2312 degree and is perpendicular to the plane of the earth's orbit. The tilt is the reason why we have different seasons.
- The earth’s axis of rotation meets its surface on the North Pole or the Terrestrial North Pole, a point in the Northern Hemisphere and the other point where the earth’s axis of rotation meets its surface is in Antarctica, in the South Pole. As the earth rotates each area (or surface) gets a turn to face the sun which is an essential for all life as the sun affects our habitat, food, weather etc.
- As we can see that the imaginary axis runs from up to down (i.e. form north to the South Pole) we can say that the earth’s rotation axis is vertical and not horizontal or tilted.

Hence, as we can see from the above explanation the correct solution is option (A).

Note: The concept that the earth revolves around the sun is known as revolution and the concept is totally different than that of rotation. Rotation of the earth is the reason for the day – and – night cycle. The North Pole is also known as the geographic north pole along with the Terrestrial North pole.