Temperature, equator, axis, earth, long days?

peter lives in England. He is talking on the phone to his friend Manuel, who lives in Ecuador (which is on the earths equator).


PETER says: "it's really hot here. the days are 18 hours long and gets really hot - 25'c sometimes."


MANUEL says: "the days are 12 hours long here and the temperature often reaches 35'c."


When it's summer in England why does England have longer days than Ecuador?





Explain why the shadow an object casts at midday in winter is longer than the shadow cast by the same object at midday in summer.

Temperature, equator, axis, earth, long days?
Its all to do with the angle at which sunlight hits the ground.


At the equator the sun reaches zenith (directly overhead) at midday on the equinoxes, and even at the solstices, it gets pretty high in the sky.


England is %26gt;50 deg north, so the sun never goes directly overhead and there is a much bigger difference between the height the sun gets to between summer and winter.





checkout: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solar...


and


http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/S...


and


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_length


if you go here:


http://www.uic.edu/classes/phys/phys112m...


you will find a diagram that might help.





basically at the Equator in mid summer the sun reahes an altitude 9angle above the horizon) of 66.5 deg; but at 50degN is only reaches 63.5deg.


However in winter, the sun still reaches 66.5deg at the equator, but in englnd its only at 16.5 deg!