What is Rotation?

A rotation is a circular movement of an object around a centre of rotation. If a three-dimensional object

like earth, moon and other planets always rotates around an imaginary line called a rotation axis. The
axis passes through the body’s centre of mass, the body is said to rotate upon itself or spin.

What is Revolution?

While revolution is often used as a synonym for rotation. But in many fields like astronomy and its
related subjects, the revolution is referred to as an orbital revolution. It is used when one body moves
around another while rotation is used to mean the movement around the axis. For example, Moon
revolves around the Earth, and the Earth revolves around the Sun.

Rotation of the Earth

The spinning of the Earth around its axis is called ‘rotation’. The axis has an angle of 2312∘ and is
perpendicular to the plane of Earth’s orbit. Which means, Earth is tilted on its axis, and because of this
tilt, the northern and southern hemispheres lean towards away from the Sun. The rotation of the Earth
divides it into a light-up half and a dark half, which gives rise to day and night.

Revolution of the Earth

The movement of the Earth around the Sun in a fixed path is called a revolution. The Earth revolves from
west to east i.e, in the anticlockwise direction. The Earth completes one revolution around the Sun in
one year or precisely in 365.242 days.

The revolution speed of the earth is 30km/s.

Difference between Rotation and Revolution

The table given below provides the basic differences between the rotation and revolution.

Rotation Revolution

Revolution is the movement of the Earth

Rotation of the Earth is its turning on its axis.
around the Sun.

The Earth takes 24 hours to complete a The Earth takes a full year (365 days) for
rotation around the Sun. one complete revolution around the Sun

The Earth’s axis of rotation is tilted by 23.5 The path of the Earth moving around the
degrees. This tilt causes the different seasons Sun is called an orbit. The Earth’s orbit is
of the year. elliptical.

Rotation Revolution

 Revolution is the circular motion of

 Rotation is the circular movement an object around another object, or
of a body around its own axis. an axis outside of it.

 Rotation involves an internal axis.  Revolution involves an external axis.

 Rotation doesn’t involve covering a

distance, or moving position from  A revolving object does change its
point A to point B. position and does cover a distance.

 Earth’s revolution is what creates

 Earth’s rotation is what creates the the different seasons and causes
succession of day and night. the solstice and equinox.

 One full rotation of Earth around its  One full revolution of Earth around
axis takes approximately 24 hours the Sun takes approximately 365
to complete. days to complete.