【英语时差8,16】为什么一天有24小时？（上）

The earth turns on its axis¹ every 24 hours — or so we’re taught. But, before we had pictures from space, how would we prove it to someone? The rising and setting of the sun and stars in the sky provide pretty strong evidence, but not absolute proof, since they could be moving and the earth standing² still! One piece of evidence from right here on the ground is the behavior of falling objects. Newton‘s laws of gravity and motion predict that a dropped object on a rotating earth should fall slightly toward the east as it drops. Here’s why. Suppose you have a ball suspended from the top of a tower. Because the earth turns, the top of the tower travels just a little faster, in terms of miles per hour, than the ground directly below, just like the edge of a phonograph record travels faster than a point near the center.

1 axis   

n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线

参考例句：

• The earth's axis is the line between the North and South Poles.地轴是南北极之间的线。
• The axis of a circle is its diameter.圆的轴线是其直径。

2 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。