Why The Sun Rises In East And Sets In West

Sun rises in the east and sets in the west is one of the universal truths of the world. Observed regularly, the science behind this phenomenon has been wondered by many. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA) has revealed the reason behind it. According to the US space agency, the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars all rise in the east and set in the west because Earth spins towards the east.

To understand it better, let’s take the reference of Earth’s rotation on its axis. With the rotation of the Earth towards the east, the appearance of the celestial objects like the sun, moon, stars and planets is the direction and it slowly makes its way westward across the sky.

Suppose you are facing east, the planet carries you eastward as it turns, so whatever lies beyond that eastern horizon will eventually appear with the east spin of the Earth. The sun is stationary relative to the Earth while the planet rotates on its axis from west to east. The Earth rotates on its axis at about 1,600 km per hour. Therefore, you can also say that it’s not the sun which appears to be moving from east to west but it’s the Earth which defines the movement of the sun through its rotation.

According to NASA, due to the earth’s rotation, people at the equator are moving at a speed of about 1,600 kilometres per hour. However, this speed decreases as you move in any direction towards the Earth’s poles.

In Texas, America, this speed becomes 1,400 kilometres per hour. In Canada, it remains at about 1,000 kilometres per hour. Now most people wonder that if the Earth is rotating at such a high speed then how come humans can walk freely and not feel dizzy?

NASA cites the reason as the lack of speed organs in humans which makes them unable to sense the full speed of Earth. Humans can only tell how fast something is moving relative to something else. You can feel the change in speed as you either speed up or slow down. Factually, humans can’t tell whether they are moving at a constant speed or not until something prompts them.