Why Do We Have Seasons?
Classical Mechanics
Level
1
Which of the following is most responsible for the reason New York experiences winter in December and summer in June?
The Earth's rotational axis is at an angle to the revolutionary plane
The Earth is not a perfect sphere
The Earth revolves around the Sun in an ellipse
None of the above
This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try
refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and,
finally, (c)
loading the
non-javascript version of this page
. We're sorry about the hassle.
1 solution
The seasons are due to the Earth's tilt. The reason for seasons can be understood by knowing why it is hot in the afternoons than in the evenings. In the afternoon the sun will be at the top making the maximum angle possible 90 degrees, now the suns rays pass threw less atmosphere so that it is less absorbed and hence more energy reaches the surface. Vice versa when the sun is raising or setting it makes lower angels, so in this case the sun light travels threw more atmosphere so less energy reaches the surface.
This is the same reason why the Earth is hotter in the summers and colder in winters. As I have told earlier the Earth's rotational axis makes some angle other than 90 with the Earth's revolutionary plane. When the Northern hemisphere is towards the sun it receives the sun light at greater angles so it hot that period of time and we call it summer at the same time the southern hemisphere is away from the sun so receives the sun light at lower angels so it is relatively cooler and we call it the winter.
Ya guys this is true we do have summer and winter at the same time, If it is summer in the northern hemisphere then its winter in the southern hemisphere.