Return to Answer

At any latitude, the Earth completes one rotation per day.

At the equator, the circumference of the Earth is about 40000 km, so the speed of rotation is 40000 km/day or 463 m/s.

If you pick a line of higher latitude and look at it on a globe, you will see that the line of latitude is smaller than the equator.

One rotation completed in a day is therefore a shorter distance; at 60 degrees latitude the line is about (cos 60 x 40000) = 20000 km long, so the speed of rotation is 20000 km/day or 230 m/s.

NOTE: This answer was provided for a different, very basic question which didn't specify the WGS84 ellipsoid; it's illustrative of the basic principle as applied to a spherical Earth. Still, not bad for an answer written a year and a half before the question was asked...

At any latitude, the Earth completes one rotation per day.

At the equator, the circumference of the Earth is about 40000 km, so the speed of rotation is 40000 km/day or 463 m/s.

If you pick a line of higher latitude and look at it on a globe, you will see that the line of latitude is smaller than the equator.

One rotation completed in a day is therefore a shorter distance; at 60 degrees latitude the line is about (cos 60 x 40000) = 20000 km long, so the speed of rotation is 20000 km/day or 230 m/s.

At any latitude, the Earth completes one rotation per day.

At the equator, the circumference of the Earth is about 40000 km, so the speed of rotation is 40000 km/day or 463 m/s.

If you pick a line of higher latitude and look at it on a globe, you will see that the line of latitude is smaller than the equator.

One rotation completed in a day is therefore a shorter distance; at 60 degrees latitude the line is about (cos 60 x 40000) = 20000 km long, so the speed of rotation is 20000 km/s or 230 m/s.

At any latitude, the Earth completes one rotation per day.

At the equator, the circumference of the Earth is about 40000 km, so the speed of rotation is 40000 km/day or 463 m/s.

If you pick a line of higher latitude and look at it on a globe, you will see that the line of latitude is smaller than the equator.

One rotation completed in a day is therefore a shorter distance; at 60 degrees latitude the line is about (cos 60 x 40000) = 20000 km long, so the speed of rotation is 20000 km/day or 230 m/s.

At any latitude, the Earth completes one rotation per day.

At the equator, the circumference of the Earth is about 40000 km, so the speed of rotation is 40000 km/day or 463 m/s.

If you pick a line of higher latitude and look at it on a globe, you will see that the line of latitude is smaller than the equator.

One rotation completed in a day is therefore a shorter distance; at 60 degrees latitude the line is about (cos 60 x 40000) = 34600 km long, so the speed of rotation is 34600 km/s or 400 m/s.

At any latitude, the Earth completes one rotation per day.

At the equator, the circumference of the Earth is about 40000 km, so the speed of rotation is 40000 km/day or 463 m/s.

If you pick a line of higher latitude and look at it on a globe, you will see that the line of latitude is smaller than the equator.

One rotation completed in a day is therefore a shorter distance; at 60 degrees latitude the line is about (cos 60 x 40000) = 20000 km long, so the speed of rotation is 20000 km/s or 230 m/s.