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Category. v. t. e. In physics, circular motion is a movement of an object along the circumference of a circle or rotation along a circular arc. It can be uniform, with a constant rate of rotation and constant tangential speed, or non-uniform with a changing rate of rotation. The rotation around a fixed axis of a three-dimensional body involves ...
Earth's rotation. Earth's rotation or Earth's spin is the rotation of planet Earth around its own axis, as well as changes in the orientation of the rotation axis in space. Earth rotates eastward, in prograde motion. As viewed from the northern polar star Polaris, Earth turns counterclockwise. The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North ...
Common geometric terms of location are: Radial – along a direction pointing along a radius from the center of an object, or perpendicular to a curved path. Circumferential (or azimuthal) – following around a curve or circumference of an object. For instance: the pattern of cells in Taylor–Couette flow varies along the azimuth of the ...
A transverse Mercator projection tilts the cylinder axis so that it is perpendicular to Earth's axis. The tangent standard line then coincides with a meridian and its opposite meridian, giving a constant scale factor along those meridians and making the projection useful for mapping regions that are predominately north–south in extent.
The reference point (analogous to the origin of a Cartesian coordinate system) is called the pole, and the ray from the pole in the reference direction is the polar axis. The distance from the pole is called the radial coordinate, radial distance or simply radius, and the angle is called the angular coordinate, polar angle, or azimuth. [1]
When a Foucault pendulum is suspended at the equator, the plane of oscillation remains fixed relative to Earth. At other latitudes, the plane of oscillation precesses relative to Earth, but more slowly than at the pole; the angular speed, ω (measured in clockwise degrees per sidereal day), is proportional to the sine of the latitude, φ:
Cylindrical coordinate system. A cylindrical coordinate system with origin O, polar axis A, and longitudinal axis L. The dot is the point with radial distance ρ = 4, angular coordinate φ = 130°, and height z = 4. A cylindrical coordinate system is a three-dimensional coordinate system that specifies point positions by the distance from a ...
Earth orbit (yellow) compared to a circle (gray) Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance of 149.60 million km (92.96 million mi), or 8.317 light-minutes, [1] in a counterclockwise direction as viewed from above the Northern Hemisphere. One complete orbit takes 365.256 days (1 sidereal year), during which time Earth has traveled 940 million ...