Re: HOW FAR DOES THE EARTH TILT OR MOVE IN A DAY IN MILES.

Hello John,

I believe what you're asking is how much closer you are getting to the sun's equatorial plane, also known as the ecliptic, from winter solstice to summer solstice? If so, then during that time, all latitudes shift their relative position to the ecliptic by 47 degrees (23.5 x 2). The relationship between the ecliptic and the tilt of the earth is shown nicely on this web site in Section 3.2, about mid-way down the page.

Considering this relationship and calculating what 47 degrees worth of Earth circumference is, I get ~3250 miles change in position from winter to summer (half a year). There are 182.5 days in half a year, so this leads to ~18 miles/day change.

This may seem like a lot, but this extreme change in position can't really be detected by us on Earth. If we were on the sun, however, we would see the continents shift around by this amount each day. This QuickTime movie illustrates how Asia and Australia would appear to someone at the position of the Sun over the course of a year. Hopefully it will help you to visualize how the tilt of the earth affects your relationship to the ecliptic.