In article ,
bpnjensen wrote:
In article ,

Brenda Ann wrote:

"ElChino" wrote in message
...
wrote:

Planet Earth is Dynamic, and also Active.Wobblin around and Slippin and
Slidin everywhere.We are all Sittin on top of Hot Molten Rock.Planet
Earth is churnin its self inside out.
Welcome to Planet Earth, it's made of Space Junk, left over from the Big
Bang.Will Planet Earth go out with a wimper, or another Big Bang?

At some time in the history of the earth it did in fact have years of ~400
days. It could happen again. I don't think I'll be around.

A theory is that the dynamic process of molten rock circulating from the
core to the near-surface will decrease. Thus the magma cooling down near
the earth crust, the size and weight of the earth will remain the same.
But the shift in mass distribution of the earth will cause the
earth-rotation to increase. (ref. an ice-skater spinning slower with the
arms stretched out). We'll get much longer days. And more time to write
junk mail like this on the net.

If the Earth's rotation speed increases, we get SHORTER days. Days have been
tending shorter. At one time within human existance, days were longer, and
we had only 360 days per year (hence 360 degrees in a circle).

No, that's not where the 360 degrees comes from.

So...(tapping foot)...tell us where! ;-)

People who actually use a "time"-related reference for navigation
(astronomers) use an hours-minutes-seconds system in place of
longitude, not a days/degrees system. Astro coords are usually in
degrees of declination above or below the equator (+/- 0-90) for
latitude, and in hours/minutes/seconds of right ascension (HH:mm':ss")
for longitude around the rotating circumference - essentially a
variation on polar coordinates.

Historically, the ancients knew the earth revolved around the
sun in a little more than 365 days. A degree of arc was chosen
to be 1/360 of a circle because it had many divisors, i.e.,
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45,
60, 72, 90, 120, 180, and 360.