diurnal motion

American  

noun

Astronomy.

1. the apparent daily motion, caused by the earth's rotation, of celestial bodies across the sky.

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diurnal motion British  

noun

1. motion that occurs during the day or daily, such as the diurnal rotation of the celestial sphere

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Example Sentences

The conceit is that the artist has spent a 24-hour period making slow, clockwise turns every so often, suggesting that he has remained fixed in his relationship to the earth’s diurnal motion.

From Washington Post

Hence arose the official proceedings against Galileo, in consequence of which he submitted to sign his celebrated recantation, acknowledging that ‘the proposition that the sun is the centre of the world and immovable from its place, is absurd, philosophically false, and formally heretical, because it is expressly contrary to the Scripture;’ and that ‘the proposition that the earth is not the centre of the world, nor immovable, but that it moves, and also with a diurnal motion, is absurd, philosophically false, and at least erroneous in faith.’

From Project Gutenberg

Now, supposing the earth to have the diurnal motion imputed to it, and which explains the phenomena of day and night, the plane in which this pendulum vibrates will not be affected by this motion, but the table over which the pendulum is suspended will continually change its position in virtue of the diurnal motion, so as to make a complete revolution round its centre.

From Project Gutenberg

All of us are—or at least should be—familiar with the apparent diurnal motion of the star sphere, caused by the actual rotation of the earth on its axis, and with the slower annual motion, due to the earth's revolution round the sun, which brings different constellations into view at different seasons of the year.

From Project Gutenberg

Look at those far-off worlds majestically wheeling in their appointed orbits, millions of miles off: or, look at this earth on which we live, performing its diurnal motion upon its own axis, and its annual circle round the sun!

From Project Gutenberg