Keep the Sun fixed
The Sun stays on the right while Earth turns counterclockwise in the north-side view.
Day and Night Earth
Rotate Earth under fixed sunlight and follow an equatorial town through daytime, sunset, nighttime and sunrise.
Grades 2–5 · Earth Science
Your goal
Select Harbor and rotate Earth until the town reaches midday.
Reduced motion is on. The controls still update the scene.
Harbor is at midnight. The town faces away from the Sun on the dark hemisphere. The Sun stays fixed while Earth turns.
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Imagine looking down from above the north pole. The three imaginary towns sit on the equator, spread around the outer edge in this view. Earth turns about once every 24 hours. The Sun lights one hemisphere at a time.
Sizes and distances are not to scale. This model leaves out axial tilt, Earth's orbit, twilight and the atmosphere. Sunrise and sunset are shown at a sharp light boundary. Polar daylight and seasonal changes need a tilted Earth model. Seasons come from axial tilt, not Earth moving closer to the Sun.
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Learn with Day and Night Earth
Day and Night Earth lets elementary learners connect a familiar daily pattern with Earth’s rotation. Select an imaginary equatorial town, rotate the planet in small steps or quarter turns, and watch the town move through the sunlit and dark hemispheres. The Sun stays fixed so students can trace midday, sunset, midnight and sunrise without changing the light source. Comparing towns shows that different places experience different local times. This simplified north-side view leaves out axial tilt and seasons to focus on the daily cycle.
What to look for
Follow one town
Use a quarter turn to move from midday to sunset, midnight, sunrise and back to midday.
Compare different towns
Select another equatorial town without moving Earth to see different local times on the same planet.
For teachers and curious learners
Connect Earth’s rotation with the daily movement of a town into and out of the sunlit hemisphere. Ask students to predict what will happen, change one setting, and explain what they observe. Learn gives a starting point. Practice and Challenge offer new goals with the same scene.
A north-side view places imaginary towns on the equator. Sizes and distances are not to scale. Axial tilt, orbit, polar daylight, seasons and atmospheric twilight are omitted.