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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.
The aim, as it was first proposed by Albert A. Michelson in 1904 and then executed in 1925 by Michelson and Henry G. Gale, was to find out whether the rotation of the Earth has an effect on the propagation of light in the vicinity of the Earth. [1] [2] [3] The Michelson-Gale experiment was a very large ring interferometer, (a perimeter of 1.9 ...
Consider a body (for example a fixed volume of atmosphere) moving along at a given latitude at velocity in the Earth's rotating reference frame. In the local reference frame of the body, the vertical direction is parallel to the radial vector pointing from the center of the Earth to the location of the body and the horizontal direction is perpendicular to this vertical direction and in the ...
Foucault reported observing 2.3 mm of deflection on the edge of a pendulum every oscillation, which is achieved if the pendulum swing angle is 2.1°. [2] Foucault explained his results in an 1851 paper entitled Physical demonstration of the Earth's rotational movement by means of the pendulum, published in the Comptes rendus de l'Académie des ...
Polar motion in arc-seconds as function of time in days (0.1 arcsec ≈ 3 meters). [1] 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 ...
Somewhat similarly, the friction of ocean tides from the moon’s gravitational pull slows the Earth’s rotation. Historically, that has had the largest influence on the planet’s rate of spin ...
The Chandler wobble or Chandler variation of latitude is a small deviation in the Earth's axis of rotation relative to the solid earth, [1] which was discovered by and named after American astronomer Seth Carlo Chandler in 1891. It amounts to change of about 9 metres (30 ft) in the point at which the axis intersects the Earth's surface and has ...
Earth’s inner core, a red-hot ball of iron 1,800 miles below our feet, stopped spinning recently, and it may now be reversing directions, according to an analysis of seismic activity.