Thursday, September 25, 2008

Seasons

Several Harvard Graduates had the misconception that the seasons were caused by the distance the earth is from the sun.

This misconception can occur as a result of several things. Let me just suggest two.
1)Some text books show pictures of the earth's orbit in drawings like the one below. Pictures like this are showing a three dimensional orbit in two dimensions. Students look at pictures like this and assume that when the earth is at either end of the picture it means that the earth is further from the sun and colder as opposed to when the earth is in the more center points of the picture when they assume the earth is closer to the sun and therefor warmer.


A better and more accurate picture of the orbit of the earth would be this one.
Students are told that the earth's orbit is elliptical (which is true) but in reality the earth's orbit is so close to circular, with the sun so close to center that there is not enough difference in distance from the sun to cause the regular temperature variations from summer to winter.

2) As second misconception occurs when the teacher explains that seasons are a result of the tilt in the earths axis. (Which is true but not in the way students assume) Teachers explain that the area of the earth that is tilted toward the sun is warmer and the area tilted away from the sun is cooler. True, but this leaves students again thinking about distance in this way: Tilted toward the sun is closer and warmer, tilted away is further and colder. (Wrong!) I've already explained that the earth in its rotation around the sun does not get close enough or far away enough to cause seasons so it is not reasonable to believe that the minor difference in distance from north pole to south pole would cause the temperature variations of the seasons.

So what is it? You ask....

Because this is my favorite I'm going to let you think about it for a bit.

You only have to wait till tomorrow. Then I'll post what I hope will clarify God's wonderful design for the beauty of seasonal differences.

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