Earth's Motions

Which term describes when the Earth spins on its axis.

• Rotation
• Revolution
• Kepler's Laws
• Precession

Which type of motion causes night / day? 

• Rotation
• Revolution
• Kepler's 1st Law
• Nutation

Which term describes the time it takes for Earth to complete one circle around the sun.

• Rotation
• Revolution
• Kepler's 1st Law
• Barycenter

Lasts 365 days

• Rotation
• Revolution
• Nutation
• Precession

Lasts 24 hours

• Rotation
• Revolution
• Precession 
• Barycenter

Earth's orbit follows an elliptical path.

• Kepler's 1st law
• Kepler's 2nd law
• Kepler's 3rd law
• Nutation

When Earth orbits around the sun, it slows down when it is close to the sun. It speeds up its orbit when it is further from the sun. This is because the sun's gravity is stronger when you are closer to it.

• Kepler's 1st law
• Kepler's 2nd law
• Kepler's 3rd law
• Nutation

Planets further from the sun have an orbit that lasts MUCH longer than planets that are close to the sun.
Pluto's orbit lasts over over 90,000 days.
Mercury's orbit lasts 88 days.

• Kepler's 1st law
• Kepler's 2nd law
• Kepler's 3rd law
• Nutation

When the moon revolves around the Earth, the Earth wobbles a little because the moon's gravity is tugging on it.

• Nutation
• Precession
• Barycenter
• Revolution

The Earth's axis changes direction (but the angle does NOT change).

• Nutation
• Precession
• Barycenter
• Revolution