Seasons By Christian Boschetto

Seasons of earth
http://www.edb.utexas.edu

    This week in school we learned about seasons and how they where caused. Seasons are a big part of  the lives of humans. Seasons affects what plants grow at certain times in the year and how we dress. In the winter we need to dress up warm and in the summer shorts and a t shirt are all that's needed. Seasons matter.
      Seasons are caused by the earths 23.5 degree tilt on its axis creating indirect and direct heating. Direct heating is when something is hit straight on by heat. That heat has to cover less area and then creates more heat in that area. If something is barely getting hit by the heat, its indirect, therefore making that heat have to cover more area causing less heat to be created. So if the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun, it gets direct heat due to the sunbeams hitting it straight on making it hotter, and creating summer. But if your in the southern hemisphere you get indirect sunlight because the beams have to reach around part of the earth (the northern hemisphere) creating less heat and winter.  But then when the southern hemisphere is pointed towards the sun its summer there and winter in the north. Here is a picture to help.

Earth northern hemisphere seasons and sunlight
http://www.learner.org

    You'll notice there are equinoxes and solstices. An equinox is when both hemispheres are hit with same amount of sunlight and heat making it equal as seen in the diagram, with complete light on both hemispheres. During the equinox the days are exactly 12 hours and the night is exactly 12 hours. Now solstices are different. A winter solstice is the shortest day of the year for whichever hemisphere is tilted away from the sun, which is low in the sky caused by  indirect heating. Summer solstice occurs for the hemisphere tilted towards the sun. Making the longest day of the year with the sun highest in the sky caused by direct heating.
     Some people might ask " well, are there seasons on other planets?" That all depends on the tilt of the planet, so usually yes, but there either more severe changes or less severe changes depending on how tilted it is toward the sun. For instance if you look at Uranus its tilt is close to 90 degrees! The seasons have very dramatic changes do to the sun beams hitting one side directly but having to reach all the way around the planet to heat the other side, as its freezing in the east but burning in the west during the western summer. But if you were on Mercury which has close to a 0 degree tilt, the seasons would barely change as the planet would get hit in about the equator all year. This is a diagram of Uranus seasons.

Uranus es seasons and sunlight
http://airandspace.si.edu/

      To learn all this in class we looked at diagrams on the board and in the textbooks while Btags explained it to us. We also did a homework which helped the facts to really sink in. I learned a lot about earths seasons and indirect and direct heating. It was a very fun and knowledgeable unit. Like I said seasons are important.

Planet earth
http://geology.com