How Does the Earth’s Rotation Affect Day and Night?

The Earth spins around like a top, and that’s why we have day and night.

Imagine you're sitting on a merry-go-round. When you face the sun, it's bright and warm, that's daytime. But when you turn away from the sun, it gets darker, that's nighttime. The Earth is doing something similar as it spins around once every 24 hours.

The Earth is always spinning on an invisible axis, like a stick going through its middle. As it spins, different parts of the planet face the Sun or turn away from it. When your part of the Earth faces the Sun, you see day. When it turns away, you see night.

You don’t feel the spin because it happens slowly, just like how you don’t feel the car moving when you're sitting inside it. But if you look up at the sky, you can see the Sun move across the sky, and that’s the Earth spinning beneath your feet!