Day+and+Night+Cycle

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Day and Night occurs because the Earth spins counterclockwise on its axis. It does a complete 360 degrees in 24hours, there fore giving one side of the Earth 12hrs sun/light or the day, and the other side darkness or the night. However, the North pole has 3 months of straight sun, then 3 months of day and night, 3 months of straight darkness and then finally, 3 months of day and night again. The South Pole has opposite to the North.======

This photo represents how the North Pole is facing the sun therefore getting a lot of light, also it shows how parts of the Earth are in day and half in night. The arrow shows the Earth spinning on it's axis, giving us the day and night.

Every place on Earth is expected to have an average of 12hrs sunlight a day, but not all do. Places around the equator will have closer to 12 hours of sun whereas places that aren't will have varying times. Take New Zealand for example, our days lengthen or shorten depending on wether it is summer or winter. Our longer days in summer mean that the South Pole is pointing toward the sun, giving us more sunlight hours in the day and less dark hours at night, the same for in winter. We have less sunlight hours in winter because the pole is facing away from the sun or because the side of the Earth is pretty much hidden in the sun's shadow.

Seasonal Cycle
The Seasonal Cycle is much like the Day and Night Cycle. When the South Pole is facing the sun, the Southern Hemisphere is in summer and we have longer days/hours of sunlight. So if summer is caused by the South Pole facing the sun, then winter is when the Pole is facing away from the sun. Now the puzzle all fits together, Autumn and Spring are the transition between the Pole facing the sun to facing away from the sun and vice versa.

The picture here shows how when the South Pole is facing the sun, it's summer and when the North Pole is facing away from the sun, it's winter.

The temperature in winter and summer all depends on what the angle of the rays are. In winter the rays are shallow and are absorbed over a wider ares therefore not so much energy is hitting a certain spot. Also at night there are no rays, so the Earth can't heat up and the shorter days give less heating time. Summer is just the opposite, the rays hit at a steeper angle so there is more energy hitting a certain spot. Also longer days give the Earth more time to heat up.

[|www.lpi.ursa.edu/education/skytellers/day_night.shtml] [] []