What causes a year on the earth

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• Right!

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  by Anonymous on January 22nd, 2008

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• Not quite.
  That would cause the entire earth to have the same season at the same time, which is not the case.
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  The seasons are caused mostly by axial tilt. That is the axis of the earth is not straight up and down with respect to its orbit, so that at one time of year the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun and has summer, while the southern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun and has winter.
  But the earth is always tilted the same amount in the same direction, so 6 months later when the earth is on the other side of the sun, the tilt now is away from the sun in the north and toward the sun in the south.

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  by edndori on March 17th, 2009

• i know that it also depends on the axis - which is why places like the arctic get very little sunlight indeed, i was just trying to keep it simple :-S

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  by angel_of_mercy on March 27th, 2009

• Simplicity is commendable.
  But I do think this extra bit of detail was needed in this one case.

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  by edndori on March 27th, 2009

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