Lab Report- Reason for the Seasons

Guiding Question: How does the tilt of the Earth’s axis affect the light received by Earth as it revolves around the sun?

Materials:

•    Flashlight

•    Paper

•    Pencil

•    Protractor

•    Toothpick

•    Foam ball marked with poles and equator

•    Acetate sheet with thick grid lines drawn on it

Tape the acetate sheet to the head of the flashlight

Procedure:

   1)Tape the acetate sheet to the head of the flashlight

         2)Carefully push the pencil into the South Pole in the foam ball, it represents Earth

         3)Use the protractor to measure 23.5^ tilt of the axis of your Earth

         4)Hold the pencil at 23.5^ angle at about 15 cm from the sun

         5)The squares should show up on the earth. Move the ball closer if necessary.

         6)Observe and record the shape of the squares at the equator and the poles

Observations:

SUMMER:     

•     The most direct sunlight is at the equator
•     Is summer the shadow is longer
•     At the equator the squares are ‘squares’ and at the edges they aren’t

WINTER:      

•    The most direct sunlight is at the equator
•    In winter the shadow is shorter
•    At the equator the squares are ‘squares’ and at the edges they aren’t

Analyze:  

   1) When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the north gets the least sun and the south by the equator gets the most sun. In the summer the North gets the most concentrated sun and the south has average sun.

   2) The light is stronger at the equator and the squares are more ‘squares’, meanwhile at before the light disappears the square are more in a rectangular form.

    3) The heat in each square is less when they become larger

    4) The warmest place is the equator it always receives lights, at the poles it is the coolest, but it also depends on the season, in summer the north pole gets some light, but not much.

    5) In the winter the shadow of the toothpick will be the shortest and in the summer it will be the longest.

Conclude:

When the squares are longer that area is colder, though when they are more squarer the area is hotter.

    The tilt and the revolution around the sun. The revolving causes the axis to either be near or far from the sun. Near is sunlight and far is winter. The hemispheres are opposite seasons (ex: northern is summer southern is winter at the same time). The sun hits the earth at an angle because of the axis this creates direct and indirect areas of sunlight. The more direct the sunlight the warmer it is.