Chapter III: The Earth in Motion

Spinning - The galaxy, sun, earth are spinning - The earth is moving around the sun, while spinning around itself - March 20-21 Vernal Equinox - June 20-22 Summer Solstice - From the previous slide it can be seen that as the earth revolves around the sun it does not do so in a perfect circle. - The earths orbit is elliptical - The density of the earth combined with the spinning of the earth on its axis causes it to go in this shape. - The gravity of the sun causes the earth to try and adjust its orbit. - The earth is at its greatest distance from the sun on July 4th - This is the aphelion - The earth is at closet distance from the sun on January 3rd. - This is its perihelion - As was mentioned before, this situation changes - The cycle is approximately 21000 - 22000 years - This shift is called the precession of the equinoxes - These variation sun distance account for the differing temperatures on the earth - The eccentricity of the earth is the elliptical nature of the orbit - As was mentioned before, the spinning of the earth, the differences in axis and other factors mean that the earths orbit is not circular - Since the earth is constantly trying to correct its orbit, it goes from elliptical to near circular and then back to elliptical - This is the eccentricity - It goes through this cycle every 100,000 years or so. - Add on to all this movement, the tilting of the earth on its axis.

- The tilt of the axis causes the seasons - Each of the seasons, the tilt causes one or the other hemisphere to be more inclined towards the sun - This increases the amount of solar radiation the the hemisphere receives - The solstice is when the sun is at its maximum position over the tropic - That is the most northerly or southerly position of the sun - The length of day also influences the amount of solar radiation that a hemisphere receives. - This also influences the temperature - Another factor is the amount of land mass. - As the earth tilts, the tilt actually varies - The tilt varies between 21.5 degrees and 24.5 degrees - The change occurs every 40,000 years or so and is called the wobble. - What is the correlation between the tilt, orbit and axis to the earth's ice ages? - According to Milankovich.The Coriolis effect

- The spinning of the earth also has an effect at the surface level. - If the earth were a featureless surface, the friction caused by the surface of the earth would have minimal influence - The fact that the earth has mountains, land, surging water and other features means that the spinning of the earth influences winds that blow across the surface.

- Where do you think is the most observable place for this phenomenon? Toilets - In the northern hemisphere, things end up to the right where of they were aimed - Southern hemisphere to the left - The Coriolis force or effect causes the distortion of the winds and energy as it flows towards the equator. - What industry must take this into account? - The airline industry

Time Zones - The final topic is the time zones that divide the earth.

- Who originated the idea of time zones - Sandford Fleming