Why Do We Have Day and Night?

The sun comes up, hello, bright morning! The sun goes down, goodnight, no warning! But here's the wild and wiggly thing: The Earth's the one that's busy spinning!

Earth is a ball, and Earth is a top, Earth twirls around and never stops! One whole spin in twenty-four hours, Round and round through the morning showers!

Spin, spin, spin around! Half is up, half is down! Spin, spin, spin so slow! Sun says hi, sun says go!

If you stand on the side that faces the sun, It's morning, then noon, then day's begun! If you stand on the side that faces away, It's nighttime, moon and stars at play!

The line we spin on, straight through the middle, Top to bottom, like a tilted fiddle, We call that line the AXIS — The invisible line that Earth spins on!

Spin, spin, spin around! Half is up, half is down! Spin, spin, spin so slow! Sun says hi, sun says go!

How do we know? How do we know? Eighteen-fifty-one, long, long ago, A man named Léon Foucault hung a string, A heavy ball on a giant swing!

He let it swing in the Paris dome, Just back and forth, just back and home, But hour by hour the swing seemed to TURN, A trick that took the world to learn!

The pendulum kept its line in space, It was the FLOOR that moved its place! The Earth was spinning under the swing, And Foucault SAW the spinning thing!

Spin, spin, spin around! Half is up, half is down! Spin, spin, spin so slow! Sun says hi, sun says go!

So when you wave goodnight to the sun, Remember: you're SPINNING, cutie hon! You're riding a planet round and round, Tucked safe and silly to the ground!