CHAPTER 3 - MOTIONS OF EARTH

SOLVED ANSWERS OF WORKSHEET

Q1. Why rotation is called the daily motion of earth?

Sol. (i) The earth takes about 24 hours or 1 day to rotate around its axis.
(ii) Thus rotation is also called daily motion of earth.

Q2. What did ancient people knew about heavenly bodies?

Sol. (i) The ancient people had always observed the movement of the sun, the moon and other heavenly
bodies in the sky.
(ii) They believed that the earth was stationary and other heavenly bodies moved around it.

Q3. Who was Nicolaus Copernicus?

Sol. (i) Nicolaus Copernicus was a polish astronomer of 16th century.
(ii) He was first to say that the earth not only spin in its axis but also moves around the sun.

Q4. Name the two types of motions of the earth?

Sol. Two types of motions of the earth are rotation and revolution.
(i) Movement of the earth in its orbit around the sun is called revolution.
(ii) Movement of earth about its axis is called rotation.

Q5. The earth rotates from _________ to ________________.

Sol. The earth rotates from west to east.

Q6. Define the inclination of earth’s axis.

Sol. (i) The axis of the earth is an imaginary line which passes through its centre. The axis is not vertical.

1°
It is inclined at an angle of 66 with the plane of the earth’s orbit. This is known as inclination
2
of the earth’s axis.

Q7. The inclination of earth’s axis is towards ______.

Sol. Pole star

Q8. The circumference of the earth at the equator is about _________.

Sol. 40,000 km

Q9. Define the circle of illumination.

Sol. The circle of illumination is an imaginary line which separates the lighted part of the earth from the
dark one.

Q10. State the effects of earth’s rotation.

Sol. The effects of earth’s rotation are:
(i) It makes us feel that the sun, the moon and other heavenly bodies move from east to west.
(ii) It causes the bulging of the earth at the equator and flattening at poles.
(iii) It causes day and night on the earth and it gives us the concept of direction based on sunrise and

sunset.
(iv) It causes deflection in the direction of winds and ocean currents.
(v) It gives us a day of 24 hours and it causes tides twice a day.

Q11. The speed of the earth’s rotation is about ______.

Sol. 1675 km/hr

Q12. Define twilight.

Sol. The diffuses light after sunset is called dusk or twilight.

Q13. State how did the length of day and night varies in northern hemisphere and southern
hemisphere.
Sol. (i) Due to the inclination of the earth’s axis, the northern hemisphere remains towards the sun for
half of the year and the southern hemisphere due to the other half.
(ii) When the north pole is inclined towards the sun and the south pole is turned away from the sun.

(iii) Thus a large part of the northern hemisphere receives sunlight.

Q14. Why we do not have the length of days and night same throughout the year?
Sol. The length of day and night is not same throughout the year due to the inclination of the axis.

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