Earth

The globe; the terrestrial sphere; in form an oblate spheroid; the third planet in order from the sun; equatorial diameter, 7,926 miles; polar diameter, 7,899 miles; surface, 197,000,000 square miles, of which 51,000,000 is land; moves round the sun in an ellipse in 365 1/4 days; least distance of the earth from the sun, 94,000,000 of miles; greatest distance, 96,000,000 of miles; velocity or the earth in its orbit, 19 miles per second; daily motion on its axis (velocity increasing from the pole), 1,440 feet per second at the equator; circumference at the equator, rather less than 25,000 miles; earth rotates on her axis in 23h. 56m. 4s.; inclination of the plane of the earth's equator to the plane of the ecliptic, about 23 deg. 28 min.