Those long summer days...

Estimate the time difference between the longest amount of daylight in one day and the shortest amount of daylight on one day in seconds over the course of a year if you lived on the Earth's equator with the assumptions below.

Note: this is not the difference between solstices as we are adjusting the earth's rotation axis to be perpendicular to the orbital plane.

Details and assumptions

  • The furthest distance from the Sun to Earth is d f = 1.521 × 1 0 8 km d_f = 1.521 \times 10^8 ~\mbox{km} .

  • The shortest distance from the Sun to Earth is d s = 1.47 × 1 0 8 km d_s = 1.47 \times 10^8~\mbox{km} .

  • To simplify the problem, assume that the Earth's axis is always perpendicular to the plane of its trajectory around the Sun.

  • The Sun always shines on half of the Earth.

  • There are 24 hours in a day and 365.25 days in a year.


The answer is 16.13.

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2 solutions

Jafar Badour
May 29, 2015

the sun cause an angular shift in one day I 'll calculate it then I'll compare the maximum with the minimum value of it. the sun's Mass we can calculate it using Kepler's third Law T 2 a 3 = 4 π 2 G M \frac{T^2}{a^3}=\frac{4\pi^2}{GM} then from the mechanical Energy equation for planets motion E = G M m 2 a E=-\frac{GMm}{2a} here E = 1 2 m v 2 G M m D E=\frac12 mv^2 -\frac{GMm}{D} so v = G M 2 a D a D v=\sqrt{GM\frac{2a-D}{aD}} we all know "according to kepler's laws" that the velocity at the nearest point is the biggest and at the furthest point is the smallest so V is the biggest and v is the smallest then

V = G M 2 a D a D V= \sqrt{GM\frac{2a-D'}{aD'}} here D = 1.47 1 0 8 k m D'=1.47*10^8 km

and we have v = G M 2 a d a d v=\sqrt{GM\frac{2a-d}{ad}} here d = 1.521 1 0 8 k m d=1.521*10^8 km the angular shift for each case is

δ θ = T V D \delta\theta'=\frac{TV}{D'}
where T = 24 3600 s e c T=24*3600 sec

δ θ = T v d \delta\theta=\frac{Tv}{d} so the shift in seconds in each case is Δ τ = T δ θ 2 π \Delta\tau'=T\frac{\delta\theta'}{2\pi}

Δ τ = T δ θ 2 π \Delta\tau=T\frac{\delta\theta}{2\pi}
Δ τ Δ τ = 16.13 s e c \Delta\tau'-\Delta\tau=16.13 sec

David Mattingly Staff
May 13, 2014

The Earth goes around the Sun in T = 365.25 T=365.25 days and rotates around its axis in t = 1 t=1 day. These two motions are in opposite directions. Since the angular momentum of the earth around the sun is a constant of motion and L r 2 ω L \sim r^2 \omega , ω r 2 \omega \sim r^{-2} and the different angular velocities when the earth is close or far from the Sun is Δ ω = 2 π T ( d f 2 d s 2 ) / d 0 2 \Delta \omega = \frac{2\pi}{T} (d_f^2-d_s^2)/d_0^2 where d 0 d_0 is the average of d f d_f and d s d_s .

As the earth spins it also goes around the sun, which means that if the period of the earth's spin is t, the total angle seen during daylight is π + β , β = ω t \pi+\beta,\beta=-\omega t . The length of daylight t d t_d is therefore

t d = π + β 2 π t t_d=\frac{\pi + \beta}{2\pi}t .

The difference in t d t_d during the longest and shortest day of the year is then

t l t s = Δ ω 2 π t 2 t_l-t_s=\frac{\Delta \omega}{2\pi}t^2 ,

which works out to be 16.13 seconds.

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