Is it true that the sun is close when its winter? and that the sun is farther away when it is summer?

Question

My science teacher said that the sun is closer to the earth when its winter, and that the sun is farther away when it is summer. My scientist teacher said that becuase he said the angles are different. can someone answer studied answers, not just off your head?

Answer 1

as long as you go to school in the northern hemisphere, this is true. the earth is tiltied toward the sun during the summer which is why it is hotter. it makes the days longer and the sun is closer to straight up rather than in the winter. but the earth is physically further away from the sun because of the elliptical orbit. that doesn't affect the temperature all that much.
Summer in the southern hemisphere is when the southern part of the earth is tilted toward the sun which happens when the earth is closest to the sun. so for them, everything makes sense but for us in the northern l hemisphere, it's bass ackwards

Answer 2

The explanation is correct.

Some answerers have confused the issue by saying it's all due to the tilt of the Earth. The tilt is the reason why it's summer (when your hemisphere is tilted towards the sun) or winter (away from the sun). But the Earth's orbit is not circlar, but elliptical, a bit like an egg-shape. As it happens, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towards the sun and it's your summer, the Earth is also at the furthest point of it's orbit.

You have some wacko answers here. Choose carefully.

Answer 3

Your science teacher is correct.
To understand what angle has to do with seasons do this simple activity. Take a marshmallow and put a tooth pick through it. If you have a lamp at home is it to be the sun and the marshmallow to be the earth. Take the marshmallow and tilt it so the top of the toothpick faces a corner in your house. Now move the marshmallow around the lamp (like the earth moving around the sun). Keep the toothpick pointed at the corner.Notice that when the marshmallow is on one side of the lamp the top part points away from the sun and on the other side of the lamp the marshmallow points toward the sun (lamp).
This is why we have seasons, the north pole of the earth always points to the North Star no matter what side of the sun the earth is on.

Answer 4

It is true that the orbit of the Earth around the sun is eliptical and there is a point where our planet is closer to the sun and another where it is farther away.

However the seasons are a product of the angle of the Earth's axis in relation to the plane of the orbit. Simply speaking, during summer a hemisphere gets more hours of sunlight and during winter it gets fewer hours of daylight and cools more.

When it is winter in the northern hemisphere it is summer in the southern hemisphere. If it is any factor at all the distance from the sun is a minor one.

Answer 5

I don't have any online resources that I can provide but I am confident that what your science teacher said is true. In Geography we had to study the Tropic of cancer and the tropic of capricorn. and then in Astronomy we also study the pattern of the earth's elipses around the sun. For Northern America Winter is determined by the tilt of the earth and not by how close or far the sun is. it could be winter here and sumer somewhere else.

Answer 6

It's true - the axis of the Earth determines the seasons, i.e. the tilt of the planet toward or away from the sun governs summer and winter. The orbit we are in around the sun actually is closer to the sun in the northern hemisphere's winter

Answer 7

The sun is definitely closer when it's winter in the Northern Hemisphere (and it's summer in the Southern Hemisphere.) The reason why it is closer is because Earth's orbit around the sun is not a perfect circle.

Answer 8

If you live in the northern hemisphere, your teacher is correct. If you live in the southern hemisphere, your teacher is wrong. The seasons are caused by the tilt of the earth's axis of rotation. The axis of rotation effectively points in a fixed direction (it really wobbles slightly, but for this question it is effectively fixed). As the earth moves around the sun in its yearly orbit, the fixed axis of rotation changes its orientation with respect to the sun. When the axis of rotation apparently leans toward the sun out of the north pole, the sun is more nearly directly overhead in the northern hemisphere and causes the northern hemisphere to have summer. At the same time, the axis of rotation is apparently leaning away from the sun at the south pole. This causes the sun to appear lower in the sky and the energy flux per unit area of land is less, causing the southern hemisphere to have winter. Six months later, the earth will have moved one half way around the sun and the orientation of the axis of rotation will have reversed with respect to the sun, causing winter in the north and summer in the south. This is the situation in December by our calendar. The earth's orbit is elliptical (oval), and at one time of the year it is closest to the sun and six months later it is farthest from the sun. The difference in distance is proportionately much smaller than the effect of the tilt of the axis of rotation. The time when the earth is closest to the sun is in January. Despite that, because of the tilt of the axis of rotation, that is northern hemisphere winter and is southern hemisphere summer. The earth is farthest away from the sun in July, but, because of the tilt of the axis of rotation, it is still summer in the northern hemisphere and winter in the south.

Answer 9

The sun is at its closest about 3 months before summer.It takes a little while for the earth to warm up from the sun.Its also true about winter...the sun is at its farthest 3 months before winter because it takes some time for the earth to cool off too.

Answer 10

The liveable zone is the area around a action picture star wherein water would be liquid on the floor of a planet. The liveable zone around the sunlight (finding on the form you calculate it) is approximately 0.ninety 5 AU to a million.37 AU. So the Earth's orbit could shrink via 4,500,000 miles or develop via 34,000,000 miles and nevertheless be interior the liveable zone.