Reasons for Seasons Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reasons for Seasons - Essay Example The misconception by many people has always been that differences in seasons come about as a result of differences in the earth’s distance relative to the sun. The belief is that at certain times the distance between the earth and sun is wide and sometimes the two bodies are closer to one another. This seems to make sense since the nearer the sun the warmer it gets and the far from the sun the icy it gets. The truth is that the earth revolves around the sun in a circle that is almost perfect and hence there are no significance changes in terms of how far the earth is relative to the sun. Also North America experiences summer at the time when the South is experiencing winter. While spinning on the axis to yield days and nights, the earth also revolves in a circular orbit around the sun which takes 364 Â ¼ days or one year. The spin axis of the earth tilts with respect to the plane of its orbit and this is responsible for seasons. When the axis of the earth is pointed directly towards the sun then that particular hemisphere experiences summer and winter comes about when the axis is pointed away from the sun. The hemisphere tilting in the sun’s direction gets warmer as sunlight will travel directly to the surface of the earth and less of it scatters to the atmosphere. The hemisphere tilting in the direction of the sun also receives longer days as compared to nights hence during summer there are longer days than the winter days. All the other planets experience seasons but they markedly differ from what is traditionally seen on earth i.e., summer, spring, winter and fall. This is because the other planets have orbits which are more elliptical. Mercury for instance witnesses the most peculiar conditions; it makes three rotations in every two years and the eccentricity of its orbits has odd effects. Mars is the planet with orbit eccentricity that is highest and has a greater axial tilt than earth’s hence great seasonal