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The diagram below shows the path of Earth's movement. About how long does it take for Earth to move from point Y, its current location, to point Z?

A. 6 months
B. 3 months
C. 1 year
D. 2 years

1 Answer

6 votes

Final answer:

The time it takes for Earth to move from point Y to Z in its orbit around the Sun is approximately 6 months, assuming these points are half an orbit apart, as the Earth completes a full orbit, or year, in about 365.25 days.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question is about the time it takes for Earth to move from one point in its orbit around the Sun to another. Earth completes one full orbit around the Sun, which we define as a year, in approximately 365.25 days. If we are considering two points within this orbit, the time it takes to move from point Y to point Z would depend on the fraction of the orbit that this path represents.

Since no diagram is provided, we can use the information that the Earth moves about 1° per day along its orbit to estimate the time frame. However, the common time frames given for such a question imply the student wants to know how long it takes Earth to move a significant distance along its orbit.

Taking the entire orbit to last one year, it's straightforward to see that if point Y and Z represent opposite points in the orbit, the Earth would take about 6 months to travel from Y to Z. If the points were a quarter of the orbit apart, it would be around 3 months. If the question expects an estimate for half of the orbital path, then the correct answer is:

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