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Earth's tilt 1: The reason for the seasons
How can it be summer in North America and winter in Australia at the same time?! License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA More information at http://k12videos.mit.edu/terms-conditions. Created by MIT+K12.
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- Why are the days longer in the summer and shorter in the winter?(7 votes)
- This has everything to do with the tilt of the earth. Say you are in the northern hemisphere around central Mexico during the summer solstice. You will notice that when the sun rises, it crosses just about directly overhead and then sinks back into the horizon, hence the longer days and more heat for that matter. This is because central Mexico, when the sun is the highest in the sky, is facing directly at the sun due to the tilt of the earth. But in central Mexico during the winter solstice, it will never reach directly overhead. This is because the southern hemisphere will now be pointing towards the sun and when the sun reaches the highest point in the sky in central Mexico, it will never reach more than about 45 degrees from the horizon. So since the sun is travelling at basically the same speed in the reference frame of the earth, during the summer solstice, there is going to be a larger circular path that the sun will travel directly overhead, hence more time and longer days, as opposed to the smaller circular path during the winter solstice. If you are wondering why I chose central Mexico, it is merely because central Mexico is at approximately 23.5 degrees north latitude, which is the exact tilt of the Earth. This can also explain why if you go to extreme latitudes near the poles, there are times in the year where the sun never rises during the winter and never sets during the summer. Hopefully this answers your question.(7 votes)
- why can't we feel the tillt of the earth(6 votes)
- We don't personally feel the gravity of the sun on our bodies, since it is relatively week and completely outpowered by the gravity of the earth. So, it doesn't feel like we are tilted, because we stay oriented the same in relation to the earth at all times, and our orientation to the sun doesn't feel like anything to us.(3 votes)
- What is the laser thing thats cutting out rectangles at the begining?(2 votes)
- Did you notice that it spelled MIT? It was the logo like videos sometimes show in the beginning.(1 vote)
- At2:25, the video mentions that the earth is tilted. How do we know the earth is tilted? If I took a round soccer ball and tilted it, it would look the same as when I started. Do we know the earth is titled by measuring the magnetic poles?(2 votes)
- Yes, we use the magnetic poles to determine the tilt on the earth(1 vote)
- if it's a sharper degree, would we have longer seasons are shorter?(1 vote)
- i googled your question but was not able to find much but i hope this helps:
if the earth was not tilted then there would be no seasons because the seasons depend on the tilt of the earth and the hemisphere tilted away from the earth is colder because the sun´s rays are less direct(2 votes)
- At2:41she says that the earths axis doesn't wiggle around, but I thought it does but over a very long period of time. Is this true?(2 votes)
- The earth's wobble actually makes a huge difference shifting us into huge periods of ice age and volcanic periods. In fact global warming is also caused by the wobble of the earth and eventually the world become so hot that the poles will become tropical.(1 vote)
- if the earth wasn't tilted, how would the seasons change? would it always be winter around the poles and summer around the equator?(1 vote)
- If the earth was not tilted then we would not have seasons because the seasons are caused by the tilt of the earth.For Example the equator only has a wet season and a dry season because it is in the center of the earth and is not affected much by the tilt of the earth(1 vote)
- Wait then what happens to the revolution of the earth in the spring and fall?(1 vote)
- At3:06, what happens at the Equator? Doesn't it just become both indirect and direct sunlight?(1 vote)
- Is there any specific place on Earth that is the least affected by seasonality? It seems likely to be the equator, which still seems like it has seasons, albeit minor ones. Is that the latitude line least seasonally affected by the earth's tilt?(1 vote)
- There are a few places that are not affected by season change, like the island of Guam, but they experience rainy and sunny seasons.(1 vote)
Video transcript
Imagine that you live
in North America. And one day you call up
your friend in Australia. You guys are talking,
and you make plans to go visit him next summer. So anytime next
summer works for you? Yeah, whenever is best for you. Surprise me. In a few months,
July rolls around, and you hop on a plane for
your Australian vacation. Imagine your surprise when
you show up at his house, and he tells you-- What are you doing here mate? It's the middle of winter. And then you say-- Winter? It's the middle of
summer back in America. And your friend's like-- I don't know what to tell you. July is winter for us. OK, I don't get this. How can it be summer in
America and winter in Australia at the same time? That's a great question. I think we can help
you out with that. To answer this question, we
have to zoom way back and start with a top-down look at the
Earth's orbit around the sun. Oh by the way, everything
you see in this video isn't to the correct scale. Now, the Earth's orbit
isn't a perfect circle. It's actually an ellipse. You usually see it
drawn like this. Lots of people think-- Hey, this must be
by we have seasons. When the Earth is close to
the Sun, we have summer, and when the Earth is far away
from the Sun, we have winter. But that's actually not true.
[BUZZER] If that were true, it would be summer in America
and Australia at the same time. And we know that's not the case. Exactly. The way we've
drawn Earth's orbit here is really exaggerated. People just draw it that way
to highlight the extreme. In actuality, there's a
relatively small difference between the Earth's closest and
furthest points from the Sun. If we draw Earth's orbit
with the correct shape, it looks like this. You can see it's actually pretty
circular, but it's not perfect. So it's not the closeness
of the Earth to the Sun that causes the seasons. To see what's actually at work,
we have to look that the orbit from the side. In our side view, the Earth
is revolving around the Sun in this orbital plain here. It takes one year to go
through a full orbit, 365 days. Remember, at the same time
Earth is rotating on its axis once every day. The important thing, for
the seasons at least, is that the Earth actually
isn't straight up and down. It's tilted at an
angle of 23.5 degrees. So when the Earth is on
this side of the Sun, the Northern Hemisphere is
angled away from the Sun. The Southern Hemisphere
is angled toward the Sun. When the Earth is
revolving around the Sun, it stays tilted in
the same position. The axis doesn't wiggle
around or anything. It just stays fixed in
a certain direction. So when the Earth is over
here, the Northern Hemisphere is angled towards the Sun,
and the Southern Hemisphere is angled away. When a hemisphere is
angled towards the Sun, the Sun's rays hit it directly. That's what's happening in
the Northern Hemisphere here. But when a hemisphere is
angled away from the Sun, like the Southern
Hemisphere here, the Sun's rays
hit it indirectly. OK, so what difference does
direct or indirect sunlight make? Oh, there's a huge difference. Let's take a look with
a simple experiment. In this experiment, we're
going to use a flashlight to simulate the Sun. Say that the flashlight
is a particular sunbeam. If it's shining
directly, all its energy is concentrated
in a certain area. But if the sunbeam is shining
indirectly, the area is larger. This means that the
same amount of energy is spread out over
a larger area. So in a particular
point on the paper it feels colder in
the indirect sunbeam than in the direct sunbeam. And the more indirect the
sunbeam, the larger the area. It's important to note that the
amount of energy in the sunbeam is always the same. It's not changing. However, if it's spread out over
a larger area, we feel it less. Let's take a look at what
this means for the Earth. Here we have a globe that's
angled at about 23.5 degrees. It's June, so the
Northern Hemisphere is angled towards the Sun. If we shine the flashlight
directly on the Northern Hemisphere, we see it
illuminates a certain area. But when we move the
flashlight to shine indirectly on the Southern
Hemisphere, we see that it's illuminating
a larger area, just like we talked about. So let's put it all together. When the Northern Hemisphere
is tilted towards the Sun, it's receiving direct sunlight. It feels warmer, which
means it's summer there. And the Southern Hemisphere is
receiving indirect sunlight, which means it feels cooler. That's winter. Six months later,
when the Earth is on the other side of the
Sun, we have the opposite. It's the Southern Hemisphere
receiving direct sunlight, so it's summer there. And the Northern Hemisphere is
receiving indirect sunlight. So they're having winter. And now you know the
reason for the seasons. Awesome. So it's not how close the Earth
is to the Sun that matters. But instead it's the
tilt of the Earth. Which is also why it's winter
in Australia at the same time as it's summer in America. You got it. Well, I think this has been the
most educational vacation I've ever had And there's so much
more to talk about. Did you know that the Earth-- You know, I actually
think I'm good for now. Oh, OK. So what would you
like to do now? We can go bush
walking and barby. Get some soccer. [MUSIC PLAYING]