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Home » Earth’s orbit is an ellipse with eccentricity 0.0167. Thus, the earth’s distance from the sun and speed as it moves around the sun varies from day to day. This means that the length of the solar day is not constant throughout the year. Assume that earth’s spin axis is normal to its orbital plane and find out the length of the shortest and the longest day. A day should be taken from noon to noon. Does this explain the variation of the length of the day during the year?
Earth’s orbit is an ellipse with eccentricity 0.0167. Thus, the earth’s distance from the sun and speed as it moves around the sun varies from day to day. This means that the length of the solar day is not constant throughout the year. Assume that earth’s spin axis is normal to its orbital plane and find out the length of the shortest and the longest day. A day should be taken from noon to noon. Does this explain the variation of the length of the day during the year?
CBSE | Class 11 | Gravitation | NCERT Exemplar | Physics
Earth’s orbit is an ellipse with eccentricity 0.0167. Thus, the earth’s distance from the sun and speed as it moves around the sun varies from day to day. This means that the length of the solar day is not constant throughout the year. Assume that earth’s spin axis is normal to its orbital plane and find out the length of the shortest and the longest day. A day should be taken from noon to noon. Does this explain the variation of the length of the day during the year?

Solution:

Velocity of the earth at perigee is given as v_{p}

Velocity of the earth at apogee is given as v_{a}

Angular velocity of the earth at perihelion is given as \omega_{p}

Angular velocity of the earth at aphelion is given as \omega_{a}

So,

\frac{\omega_{p}}{\omega_{a}}=1.0691

ꞷ is the mean angular speed having value 1.0691

\frac{\omega_{p}}{\omega}=\frac{\omega}{\omega_{a}}=1.034

As a result, it may be concluded that this does not account for the actual fluctuation in day length over the year.

i

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