Why does Australia's winter season start NOW? Please explain....?

Question

...when in North America summer is about to begin.
Does the winter season begin now in EVERY country in the southern hemipshere? Does summer season begin now in EVERY country in the northern hemisphere?
Is it true that people in southern and northern hemispheres appear upside down from eachother?
What the heck is the point of daylight savings time?

Answer 1

One question at a time.

The first one has been answered. Becasue of the earths tilt, countries in the southern hemisphere are closer to the sun in December than the countries in the northern hemisphere - that is why we have winer here (its further away). And when the earth goes around to the other side of its orbit around the sun in July, we in the northern hemisphere are closer, while they are farther.

This the general rule, however there are many other factors like elevation, precipitation, wind patterns, jet streams, ocean currents etc etc. so yes - every country in the northern hemisphere it is officially summer in july etc. but not necessarily as warm as some other countries can get. and vice versa for the southern hemisphere of course.

All of us - when we stand up, we are perpendicular to the earths surface no matter where we are. Imagine a ball ... and pins sticking straight out of the ball. This is how we'd look, so to a person on the south POLE, would be upside down to someone on the north POLE. or someone in one area, will be upside to someone else DIRECTLY on the other side the earth's surface. Everyone else will be in varying degrees of "upsidedownness"

Daylight savings time is a pure man made concept. But again ... because of the tilt of the earth, during July etc. the sun shines longer on the northern hemisphere (The days are longer) and the southern hemisphere the days are shorter. This causes the sun to rise earlier and earlier and then after the longest day of the year, it reverses - the days get shorter and shorter.

Now what happens is that you can wake up at 6 am and it still be pitch dark and 7 am it starts to rise and 8 am its fully light. So they change the time to go an hour back (Fall Back) and this allows the time now to be 5 am as pitch dark, 6 am start rise, and 7 am fully light. So for people who wake up at 7 am everyday, the first plan it will be kinda dark when they wake up but with daylight savings, it will be fully light when they wake up! Thus its just something certain countries do to be able to have light for when most people wake up in the morning - even if you are not a mornig person - about 90% of people wake up at that time to to go to work

Hope all this made sense and email me at [e-mail] for more clarification.

Answer 2

The tilt of the earth's axis causes the southern hemisphere to be in opposite seasons than the northern hemisphere.

Answer 3

coz they are in the second half of the earth, the are in the southern part or the tropical line ..

Answer 4

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/time/seasons.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/Seasons.shtml