Question

The daily motion of the Earth is _____.

Answer 1

Hint: The daily motion of Earth is that it spins around its own axis and also at the same time as it is spinning around its own axis it also orbits i.e. revolves around the sun in a fixed path. As the Earth completes one spin around its own axis it is called a day and as the Earth completes one revolution around the sun it is called a year.

Complete answer: 

The daily motion of the Earth about its own axis is called Rotation. The Earth rotates Eastward or Counterclockwise as viewed from the North Pole. The Earth rotates once in about 24 hours with respect to the Sun and this is called a Day. The period of rotation is known as the earth day. This is the daily motion of the earth. 

The earth is going around the sun in an elliptical orbit. Six hours saved every year are added to make one

day (24 hours) over a span of four years. This surplus day is added to the month of February. Thus every

In the fourth year, February is 29 days instead of 28 days. Such a year with 366 days is called a leap year.

As the Earth rotates around its own axis it also revolves around the sun in an elliptical path which is the orbit of the Earth and to complete one whole revolution it takes 365.256 days. A year is 365 days hence when the Earth completes one whole year it has completed one revolution. To keep things simple the extra .256 is added and after every 4 years one more day is added to the month of February and that year is known as a Leap Year. The Earth travels 940 million km to complete one revolution.

Thus the daily motion of the Earth is ‘Rotation’.

Note: The time taken by other planets to complete one spin about its own axis is : Jupiter 9 hrs 56 mins, Saturn 10 hrs 42 mins, Neptune 16 hrs 6 mins, Uranus 17 hrs 14 mins, Mars 1 day 37 mins, Mercury 58 days 15 hrs 30 mins, Venus 116 days 18 hrs.