Earths Precession

[bennyjet]

Could anyone explain to me what is meant by 'Earths Precession is one degree every 72 years'
And if there is 360 degrees in a circle ...72years X 360 =25,920 years
Does this mean earth does a complete flip, and comes back to its original position?...by that i mean does the earths equator change over this period?
thanks heaps

[NightRose]

Now, I've always been particularly bad at science, so I did a quick google search for you, and up popped a wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_prec ... tronomy%29

It seems that the earth moves some, but because the entire Earth turns at the same time, the poles are still the same, and the equators do not change either. It seems like the Earth doesn't "flip" as you asked, it just wobbles a little bit on its axis. So while the poles and equator may not always be exactly right, they're close enough that no one thinks changing them would be smart. However, the north star is changed every once in a while, which they explain in the Wikipedia page.

I hope it helps you. Quite honestly, it didn't make full sense to me, but I'm still half asleep, so that's not too surprising.

[ImperfectAngel]

Now, I've always been particularly bad at science, so I did a quick google search for you, and up popped a wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_prec ... tronomy%29

It seems that the earth moves some, but because the entire Earth turns at the same time, the poles are still the same, and the equators do not change either. It seems like the Earth doesn't "flip" as you asked, it just wobbles a little bit on its axis. So while the poles and equator may not always be exactly right, they're close enough that no one thinks changing them would be smart. However, the north star is changed every once in a while, which they explain in the Wikipedia page.

I hope it helps you. Quite honestly, it didn't make full sense to me, but I'm still half asleep, so that's not too surprising.

That's interesting

[Melindrose]

A really simple way to think of it is if you launch a spinning top; when it starts, the upper part where you generated the spinning force from moves very little. As the top starts to slow down more it begins to wobble more on the point down at the bottom but much more noticeably at the top. Eventually the momentum of the spin runs out and the top stops moving but the movement of the top and bottom of the device is known as precession and scientists managed to notice that our planet has similar motion only it takes a lot longer to do one full round.