THE EARTH AND ITS

MOVEMENTS
Illustration of the earth
•The eight known planets in
order of size include: Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune,
Earth, Venus, Mars, and
Mercury.
•In terms of distance from
the sun: Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, and Neptune
 Rotation of planets
•Each planet rotates on its axis in an
anti-clockwise direction, that is, from
west to east.
• However Venus and Uranus rotate
in a clockwise direction from east to
west.
• A complete rotation is called a solar
revolution
•When it comes to revolution,
however, all these planets
revolve around the sun in an
anticlockwise direction
Distance from the sun
•The distance from the sun for each
planet varies.
• The farther away a planet is from the
sun, the longer the orbit and the longer
the distance it must travel to complete
a revolution around the sun.
•The greater the distance, the
slower the speed of its
movement because it is less
affected by the sun’s gravity.
•.
• For mercury is the nearest to the
sun, and hence takes the shortest
time to complete a revolution while
Neptune which is the farthest takes
the longest time.
•
•The period of one revolution
of a planet’s orbit is known as
a year
THE SHAPE OF THE EARTH

• The earth is described as spherical,

but it is not a perfect sphere.
•The earth is flattened at
both the north and the
south poles, while at the
equator it bulges out
slightly
Activity ONE:
• You have gone to the village during the December
holiday.
• You meet a number of children who are excited on
seeing you.
• During a discussion an argument develops
between Sam and Peter. They don’t seem to agree
about the shape of the earth.
• Using your knowledge about the earth, draw the
pictorial model to show the shape of the earth and
explain the evidences to support the shape you
Shape of the earth diagram
The size of the earth
•The earth is the fifth largest
planet. Much of the earth is
described as spherical
•This explains why the earth’s
polar diameter is shorter
than its equatorial diameter.
•
• The polar diameter is
12,714km, while the
equatorial diameter is
12,756km
The position of the earth

•The earth is the third

planet from the sun, after
mercury and Venus
•The distance from sun to
the earth is on average
149,598,000 km .
The movement of the earth
•There are two forms of
movement of the earth
•Rotation

•Revolution
•Both these movements
occur at the same time
The rotation of the earth on its
axis

•Rotation is the spinning

of the earth on its axis.
•.
•The earth rotates or spins
on its axis in an anti-
clockwise direction, from
west to east through 360 .0
illustration
• The earth’s axis is inclined at an angle
of 23 ½ from the vertical and is said
0

to be pointing to the North Star

permanently.
•A complete rotation takes 24
hours. This is commonly
called a day.
•An axis is an imaginary line
passing through the Centre of the
earth, from the North Pole to the
South Pole.