Everybody Rotate!

My science lessons today were about weight and gravity and Earth's orbit and rotation.

The Earth’s orbit is the path it takes around the sun.  It takes the Earth 365.25 days to orbit the sun. 

The Earth’s rotation is its motion around its axis.  It takes the Earth 24 hours to rotate once on its axis.  

What is one pattern we observe because of Earth’s rotation? Explain. The Earth spins every 24 hours on its axis.  This gives us day and night when the rotation makes us face at and away from the sun.  

Draw a diagram of Earth’s orbit and rotation. Label the “orbit” and “rotation.”

Explain why we need a leap year. Is it because of Earth’s orbit or rotation? Every year, or Earth’s orbit around the sun, is 365.25 days not 365. So every four years we have an extra day in February.

How much would you weigh on the other 8 planets in our solar system?  

I weighed myself today at home.  I weigh 94.0 lbs on Earth.  On Jupiter I might need a diet! 

Your weight on Earth	Planet	New Weight on the planet
94.0 lbs	Mercury =     x .38	35.72 lbs
94.0 lbs	Venus =        x .91	85.54 lbs
94.0 lbs	Earth =      x 1.00	94 lbs
94.0 lbs	Mars =       x  .38	35.72 lbs
94.0 lbs	Jupiter =    x 2.34	219.96 lbs
94.0 lbs	Saturn =         x 1.06	99.64 lbs
94.0 lbs	Uranus =    x  .92	86.48 lbs
94.0 lbs	Neptune =  x 1.19	111.86 lbs
94.0 lbs	Pluto (a dwarf planet)=                 =                x .06	5.64 lbs

Yesterday my math lesson was on the coordinate system. I made this coordinate picture of flowers.