WHY ? is our effort to answerall the head every little child asks . Do you have a question ? beam it towhy@mentalfloss.com .
Did you screw that when it ’s summer in North America it is wintertime in some other continent , like South America and Australia ? Picture Earth as a round musket ball with a line drawn around the middle . That line is theequator(ee - QUAY - ter ) , and it divides our satellite into two one-half : the NorthernHemisphere(HEM - iss - feer ) and the Southern Hemisphere . When it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere , it is wintertime in the Southern Hemisphere . In summer the days are longer , while in winter they are shorter .
On map and globes , the Earth looks straight up and down , with the North Pole at the top and the South Pole at the bottom . Actually , though , the Earth is shift 23.4 degrees ! ( A traffic circle is 360 degrees . ) This arguing is the reason that days are long in the summer and inadequate in the wintertime . The hemisphere that ’s tilt closest to the Sun has the longest , bright day because it baffle more lineal light from the Sun ’s ray of light . One hemisphere does n’t stay tilted closer to the Sun all year , however .
Because Earth does n’t stay on in one place ! It orbits ( or circles ) the Sun , making an ellipse form . One compass takes one twelvemonth . Because the Earth is tilted , one hemisphere will be close to the Sun for part of the class . But as Earth continue orbiting the Sun , that sway frame the other cerebral hemisphere tightlipped to the Sun . In the Northern Hemisphere , the long day of the year , called the summersolstice(SOAL - stiss ) , chance around June 21 , because that ’s when the North Pole is tilted closest to the Sun . The paired happens around December 21 : the South Pole is snug to the Sun , so the Northern Hemisphere has its shortest sidereal day of the twelvemonth . Meanwhile , the Southern Hemisphere is having its own summertime solstice .
require to see it for yourself ? Have an grownup assist you set up this funexperiment ! you may also view Bill Nye the Science Guyexplain the seasons .
