5 Answers
The earth rotates as a result of conservation of angular momentum of the mass that accreted to form it. When a spinning ice skater pulls in her arms, her rotation rate increases. The mass that contracted to form the earth possessed angular momentum from some initial disturbance. This momentum was preserved.
The second primary component of earth's motion is the result of the gravitational attraction of our sun. The sun is a massive body, swinging the earth in an orbit like a parent giving airplane rides to all her children.
Third, the sun is dragging the earth and all the planets in great arcs around the galaxy, completing orbits every 200 million years. The sun swings back and forth through the plane of the galaxy over the course of each circuit.
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