Seasons????

Question

Why are there seasons? (What causes them?)

Answer 1

The Earth is tilted 23 1/2 degrees from it's orbital plane; During the summer, the hemisphere you're in is tilted toward the sun, and the pole you're nearest to gets continuous sunlight. The sun shines longer, and more directly during this season. Fall & Spring both are the result of more equal days & nights. The winter is when your hemisphere is tilted AWAY from the sun - the nights are longer, and less direct sunlight falls on your location.

Answer 2

Imagine you're the Sun. You have a globe of the Earth in front of you, tilted sideways 23 1/2 degrees from vertical. The Earth is spinning, one revolution per day, and the Earth is slowly moving around you in a big circle. But as it travels, you notice that the axis keeps facing the same direction. When it gets 1/4 of the way around you, the axis is now leaning directly toward you and you can see the top of the globe but not the bottom. When it gets half way around, it's now leaning sideways in the other direction, but you can see all parts of the globe as it spins. At 3/4 of the way around, the axis is now leaning away from you and you can see the bottom of the globe but not the top.

Essentially, the Earth is a big gyroscope that keeps leaning in the same direction even as you move it around. When the Earth is leaning toward the Sun, its Summer in the North and WInter in the South. When it leans away, the seasons are reversed. The lean doesn't change, just the point of view of the Sun. If Earth's axis were straight up, the view would never change and there would be no seasons.

Answer 3

It is all about the angle of the sun’s rays.

Ask yourself why the sun is hotter at midday than early in the morning? Why do you sunburn in the middle of the day?

On a longer time scale the seasons are the same effect. As others have pointed out, the Earth’s axis is tilted. That tilt alters the height of the sun in the sky, as we perceive it from Earth. You must surely have noticed the sun gets much higher in the sky in Summer than Winter.

Then it is simple mechanics:

1. The higher the sun is in the sky, the less atmosphere it has to pass through
2. The sun low in the sky has oblique rays and the light is more spread out – think of shining a flashlight straight down – you get a nice bright round image on the ground. If you shine it 10 yards in front, the image on the ground is elongated, and consequently less bright
3. The other effect of the tilt is to make your daylight longer during summer. That means you have a longer day for the other 2 effects above to make things warmer.

Answer 4

I live in Los Angeles, we don't have seasons. But if you live anywhere else , it is because of the tilt of the Earth on it's axis at 23 1/2 degrees, and the rotation of the Earth around the Sun over a year's time

Answer 5

The earth tilt.
So as it tilts either closer or further away from the sun the seasons change.

http://www.reference.com/search?q=seasons&db=web
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/Seasons.shtml

This should help clarify.

Answer 6

We've created seasons for the seasonal workers.

Answer 7

The earth is sideways are something like that. It has to do with the axis. Havent you gone to school?