Why does the night sky appear to move slowly even though the earth is rotating at 1,000mph?

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Why does the night sky appear to move slowly even though the earth is rotating at 1,000mph?

In: Earth Science

21 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because mph is the wrong unit. The earth is rotating at 0.0007 rpm, so the stars appear to rotate at the same rate. The minute hand of a clock has an angular velocity 24 times faster than the stars (0.017 rpm), but it still isn’t fast enough to be able to see the movement.

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