Posts

Showing posts from March 31, 2013

Why the Earth has seasons?

Image
Many people think that some parts of the year are hotter because we're nearer to the Sun, but the real reason is that the Earth is wonky (tilted). We have seasons because the earth is tilted (wonky) as it makes its yearly journey around the sun. The Earth's tilt The Earth's axis is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees. This means that the Earth is always "pointing" to one side as it goes around the Sun. So, sometimes the Sun is in the direction that the Earth is pointing, but not at other times. The varying amounts of sunlight around the Earth during the year, creates the seasons. A season is a subdivision of the year, marked by changes in weather, ecology, and hours of daylight. Seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the plane of revolution. In temperate and polar regions, the seasons are marked by changes in the intensity of sunlight that reaches the Earth's surface, vari