Radha loves winters. She loves wearing furry jackets and fluffy scarves.
This year on Christmas she wished for winters to stay forever.
Sophie likes summers. She loves the fact that she doesn’t have to wear layers of clothes, and gets to eat ice candies whenever she wants to. Every year she hopes for summers to stay throughout the year.
However, none of their wishes ever come true. Seasons change from one to other. Have you ever wondered why seasons change?
Our Earth revolves around the Sun. It takes about 365 and 1/4 days to take one round of the Sun and that makes our year. Earth also spins on its own. One spin gets completed in twenty four hours. While spinning, when we face the Sun- we have day and when we face away from the sun – we have night. That is how we have day and night.
Now Earth, spins around an axis. Imagine axis as an imaginary line passing through North and South pole. So Earth is like a spinning top except the fact that the Earth is tilted. This tilt causes two hemispheres to receive different amount of energies from the sun at the same time. So while the Earth is revolving around the Sun, when one hemisphere of Earth is tilted towards the sun, the other is away from the sun. The hemisphere leaning towards the sun has summers. The other one leaning away from the sun gets less of sun’s heat and energy and has winters.
Now can you tell why Australia in Southern hemisphere has summers when people in America in Northern Hemisphere have snowy winters?
If you did not read my sermon watch this video –
Countries near to the equator – an imaginary line that runs in middle of Earth and divides it into two hemispheres – have very moderate seasons. The weather stays almost the same temperature all the year round since the distribution of sun’s energy is same throughout the year.
North Pole and South pole, being northernmost point and southernmost point on the Earth, have extreme temperatures because they tilt either very close or very far away from the sun.
Watch another video to help you visualise how it all happens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=plpp&v=DuiQvPLWziQ
Leave a Reply