Using the International System of Units (SI) definition of a day as 86,400 seconds, there are 31,536,000 seconds in a 365 day year.

Additionally, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) responsible for maintaining global time has not announced any leap seconds for 2009, so the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) scale will be the same as the SI.

counter to the earth's rotation

Exactly wrong..........it travels WITH the Earths rotation.....eastwards

Polaris is located over Earth's axis of rotation, hence, the reference point for earth's latitude system.

-- day and night

-- rotation of atmospheric pressure systems

-- rotation of the plane of Foucault's pendulum

-- rotation of ocean eddies and currents

-- apparent rising and setting of sky objects

rotation and revolution of earth provide the framework for measuring time. so the answer is the motions of earth.