Seasons Lab

Reasons for the Seasons

When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, which areas on Earth get the most concentrated light? Which areas get the most concentrated light when it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere?

When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the Northern Hemisphere is getting less light. So the area with more concentrated light is the Southern Hemisphere. So it is also vice versa, if the Northern Hemisphere has all the concentrated light the Southern Hemisphere will have less light.

Compare your observations of how the light hits the area halfway between the equator and the North Pole during winter and during summer.

During the winter the light in less focused on the area between the equator and North Pole, while in the summer the earth is tilted more towards the dun in a way so the light is more concentrated on the area between the equator and the North Pole.

If the squares projected on the ball from the acetate become larger, what can you infer about the amount of heat distributed in each square?

It probably spreads out over the small area of like the light, becoming larger, the heat becomes hotter. Yet maybe since the heat is being spread out the little area actually gets less hot because the heat isn't as concentrated.

According to you observations, which areas on Earth are consistently coolest? Which areas are consistently coolest? Why?

The warmest area is the area around the equator; this area is always warm because it always has direct sunlight, while the pole areas are probably the coolest areas because they don’t get much sunlight and if they do it is very short and not enough for it to warm up the country.

What time of year will the toothpick’s shadow be longest? When will the shadow be shortest?

I think that the toothpick’s shadow will be the longest in the summer and in the winter it will be the shortest, this is because in the summer the toothpick is closer to the sun making a longer shadow. Yet in the winter the toothpick in further away making am shorter shadow.

How are the amounts of heat and light received in a square related to the angel of the sun’s rays?

The closer the direct sunlight the more heat and light is received in one square, if the angle is pointing downwards the direct sunlight will be down making the part the brightest and the hottest and other surrounding parts will be dimmer and less hot.

Use your observations of an Earth-sun model to write an explanation of what causes the seasons.

The seasons are caused when the earth tilt’s on its axis toward or away from the sun on its rotational path.

The guiding question is this lab was, How does the tilt of the Earth's axis affect the light received by Earth as it revolves around the sun?

Our hypothesis for this “mini-lab” was, I think that seasons are caused because sometimes some parts of the earth of recieve more sunlight than another parts, making that part warmer than another.The hypothesis was not techinically right but some of the ideas worked, and I think it was an educated guess. This is becuse sometimes the earth does recieve more sunlight than another part of the earth making it lighter and hotter.