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Turning Earth
Name: Joey
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 1993 - 1999
Question:
When our Earth turns, do we move closer to the sun?
Replies:
When it's the middle of the night where you are, you're the farthest
from the sun that you will be for that day. As the earth spins you toward
morning, you get closer and closer to the sun; and at the middle of the day you
are the closest to the sun that you will be for that day. The difference between these two distances is
very slight, compared with your average distance from the sun; even at the
equator, where the effect is a maximum, it is a difference of less than one part
in 10,000. This tiny difference has nothing to do with why it is (usually) warme r in the daytime
than in the previous or following nights.
What I've described above is much easier to see using a globe than from reading
these words. Check it out for yourself.
I am not certain if I have understood your question correctly. It is also true
that, because the earth's orbit is not perfectly circular but is, instead,
elliptic, that the earth as a whole is farther from the sun at some times than
at others.
Unknown
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Update: June 2012
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