how to find the direction of earth rotation?

Question

hi,

it might sound like an unusual question, but i would like to know how to deduce the direction of earth's rotation from the cardinal directions.

usually because people know that earth rotates form west to east, they simply think that the direction of earth's rotation is the magnetic east. where the magnetic direction deviate from the geographical directions by some 11 degrees and this deviation is not constant.

some other people would say that the spot the sun rises from every day is the accurate east, but most people don't know that this spot is variable in relevance to the time of year we are in because of the 23 something degrees the earth's axis inclination.

so how to know the direction of earth's rotation?

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox

Observe the sun's rise and set direction at equator during the Equinox.

The is the East and West.

Answer 2

Are you asking how to know (detect) which direction the Earth rotates, or the exact location of the rotational axis? I'm confused.



Observation of the stars apparent paths in the night sky would give both, a foucault pendulum on the surface can show the rotational direction.

Answer 3

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. we see it this way because of the direction in which the earth turns. you can find it easily by just observing sunrise to sunset. the sun does not move the earth is turning with us on it so it looks like the sun is going across the sky but we are the ones moving.

Answer 4

Look for the celestial pole; the north pole if you are in the northern hemisphere. "East" is at right angles to that toward the level horizon, in the sunrise direction.



Astronomers use networks of radio-telescopes aimed at the stars to find "north" (and therefore east, west, and south) to an accuracy of 0.000 035 arcseconds. That's 1 / 100,000,000 of a degree!