Why is the world on a tilt?

Answer 1

We do not know why the axis of the Earth's rotation is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees (approximately) to the plane of the Earth's orbit. But there is no particular reason why the Earth ought to be spinning in some other direction.

Perhaps it has something to do with the massive impact that scientists suspect may have formed the Moon. But it was probably just the way the material in the accretion disk around the proto-Sun was spinning when it finally came together to form the Earth.

Answer 2

An equatorial bulge is a difference between the equatorial and polar diameters of a planet, due to thecentrifugal force of its rotation. A rotating body tends to form an oblate spheroid rather than a sphere. TheEarth has an equatorial bulge of 42.72 km (26.54 mi): that is, its diameter measured across the equatorial plane (12,756.28 km (7,926.38 mi)) is 42.72 km more than that measured between the poles (12,713.56 km (7,899.84 mi)); in other words, anyone standing at sea level on either pole may be 21.36 km closer to the earth's centrepoint than if standing at sea level on the equator. To get the Earth's mean radius, these two radii must be averaged.[citation needed]

An often-cited result of Earth's equatorial bulge is that the highest point on Earth, measured from the center outwards, is the peak of Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador, rather than Mount Everest. But since the ocean, like the Earth and the atmosphere, bulges, Chimborazo is not as high above sea level as Everest is.

Answer 3

Yes, it is. We would have completely different weather patterns if the sun was directly opposite the Earth's equatorial line. Instead, we are 'inclined' or 'slanted' at about 23.44 degrees.