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Earth's rotation axis moves with respect to the fixed stars (inertial space); the components of this motion are precession and nutation. It also moves with respect to Earth's crust; this is called polar motion. Precession is a rotation of Earth's rotation axis, caused primarily by external torques from the gravity of the Sun, Moon and other bodies.
Earth's rotational velocity is not constant over time. Any motion of mass in or on Earth causes a slowdown or speedup of the rotation speed, or a change of rotation axis. Small motions produce changes too small to be measured, but movements of very large mass, like sea currents, tides, or those resulting from earthquakes, can produce ...
The outcome of the experiment was that the angular velocity of the Earth as measured by astronomy was confirmed to within measuring accuracy. The ring interferometer of the Michelson-Gale experiment was not calibrated by comparison with an outside reference (which was not possible, because the setup was fixed to the Earth).
Given the object's fixed internal moment of inertia tensor I 0 and fixed external angular momentum L, the instantaneous angular velocity is = Precession occurs by repeatedly recalculating ω and applying a small rotation vector ω dt for the short time dt; e.g.: = ([()]) for the skew-symmetric matrix [ω] ×.
Polar motion of the Earth is the motion of the Earth's rotational axis relative to its crust. [2]: 1 This is measured with respect to a reference frame in which the solid Earth is fixed (a so-called Earth-centered, Earth-fixed or ECEF reference frame). This variation is a few meters on the surface of the Earth.
An example is the calculation of the rotational kinetic energy of the Earth. As the Earth has a sidereal rotation period of 23.93 hours, it has an angular velocity of 7.29 × 10 −5 rad·s −1. [2] The Earth has a moment of inertia, I = 8.04 × 10 37 kg·m 2. [3] Therefore, it has a rotational kinetic energy of 2.14 × 10 29 J. Part of the ...
The discovery indicates that the Earth’s center regularly pauses and reverses its rotation, researchers in China wrote in a study published Jan. 23 in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Scientists in a rotating box can measure the rotation speed and axis of rotation by measuring these fictitious forces. For example, Léon Foucault was able to show the Coriolis force that results from Earth's rotation using the Foucault pendulum.