The spinning world

You may think our world, the earth, is standing still. But it isn't. The earth is spinning around and around, like a huge top

Push a stick through a ball of clay and then twirl the stick. The clay ball will turn around like a wheel. That's how the earth spins - around a kind of imaginary axle that runs through its middle. This imaginary axle is called the axis. One end of the axis is the North Pole and the other end is the South Pole.

Why can't we feel the earth turn ? Because we're so tiny and it's so big. But we know itu does turn because that's what gives us our day and night. In the morning, when the sky is bright, we know that our part of the earth is turned toward the sun. In the evening, when the sky grows dark, we know that we've turned away from the sun.

The time it takes the earth to make one complete turn is just a little less that 24 hours-one full day and night.