Question: How does the world spin?

Kieran Fraser answered on 8 Nov 2017:

Good question! Planet Earth spins because of the way it was created – it was born in a giant cloud of dust and gas. The dust and gas condensed (was pushed together) under the force of its own gravity, creating a small mass – a smaller version of Earth as we know it. It grew larger and it’s force of gravity increased attracting more dust and gas toward it at a faster rate. Think of a giant whirlpool of dust and gas – like what happens when you drain your bath and all the water swirls around the drain – the drain is like earth, it’s attracting the water toward it just like earth is attracting the dust and gas. So just like the whirlpool, earth and the surrounding dust and gas is spinning. The Earth then keeps spinning because of a law of physics which says: if no forces are acting against it, it won’t stop. This law is called the conservation of angular momentum.