How Fast Is the Earth Spinning Where You Are?

Imagine the Earth like a spinning ball. It spins once roughly every 24 hours. No matter where you are on Earth, you're going around once per day. But how far you have to travel during that spin depends on where you are.

At the equator, you're out near the “waist” of the Earth. That’s the widest part of the spinning ball. So when the Earth spins, you move in a big circle — you have to cover a long distance in one day. That means you're moving faster.

Near the poles, you're closer to the top or bottom of the spinning ball. There, your circle is much smaller — like just spinning in place. So you’re not traveling very far during a full spin. That means you're moving slower.

So even though everyone is rotating once per day, people near the equator are zipping around faster than people closer to the poles, just to make it all the way around their bigger circle.

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