Ize went foah a walk awn da beech yestahday. Amee let mee borrow er camrah. Mohst katz don't lyke da beech, butz u kno ow much Ize lyke wada. Ize lyke tah chase da seagulls alzo.
Ize notissed dat da zun wuz stronger, and warmer. And thod aboot anothah sign ov spring, mowa daylight. Da dayz r getting longer. And wee set da clawkz ahead awn Mahch 8th. Az u cayne zee, heah in Portlande wee r gaining aboot 17 minuets ov daylight just dais week!
--Tobee
6 comments:
Extra credit will be given to the person who can explain what the distance refers to on the chart. I do not know what it is.
The distance is just the distance from the earth to the sun.
From running, I know that 5 km= 3.1 miles so 1 km = .62 miles so you multiply km by .62 to get miles
so ...
10^6 * 148 km * .62 mi / km = 91.76 * 10^6 miles
Since we were always taught the sun is about 93 million miles away but that the
orbit of the earth is elliptical, not circular, it must be that right now we are closer than 93 million miles. That's pretty interesting. If 93 is the average distance, it must mean it's even farther away than that sometimes. I wonder if we're about as close as we ever get right now.
Based on the above musings, I'm guessing our distance varies from closest to farthest by maybe a couple of million miles. That's about 2%.
Of course I could actually do the research and find out more accurately. This is left as an exercise for the reader.
Maybe the folks over at Math4Chip might want to delve into ellipses, major axes and minor axes. I think Kepler had a few things to say about the ratio of the square of the time it takes a planet to go around the sun and the cube of the distance of the planet to the sun.
The coming of Spring sure wakes up those mollykewels. If you don't know what mollykewels means, just Google. If you use a bogus word enough, it becomes part of the fabric we call reality.
Tanx TcT, you get 5 bonus points. You are right on the money. I found some more information on the site where I got the original info, my "Personal World Clock":
"Solar noon" consists of three columns that describe the local time and the altitude and distance when the Sun passes through the meridian (longitude) of the selected location.
"Time" shows the local time of this moment, when the Sun's position will be right above a location on the same longitude as the observer (directly south or north). Except in Polar Regions, where the Sun might be below the horizon, the Sun will appear in a direct southern or northern direction at this time. For locations near the equator, the Sun can be right over one's head, at the point nearest the zenith position (altitude 90 degrees).
"Altitude" shows the altitude of the Sun's center above the ideal horizon at the passing time. Typically this is the highest position it reaches in the sky that day (except near the South and North Poles, where the altitude increases or decreases all day and night). The altitude takes into account typical refraction in the Earth's atmosphere. If the Sun is below the horizon all day, the altitude will be labeled "below."
"Distance" is the distance from the Earth's center to the Sun's center in millions of kilometers, or 106 km, so a figure of 151 x 106 means 151,000,000 kilometers. (Subtract 660,000 km to get the approximate distance between the surfaces of the two bodies.) The distance varies because the Earth's orbit is elliptical rather than circular. The Sun is closest on perihelion, around January 3, and most distant on aphelion, around July 5. The mean distance is 149.6 * 106 km.
The distance to the Sun does not have as great an impact on the seasons as does the Earth's tilted angle. During the summer on the Northern Hemisphere, that hemisphere is tilted toward the sun. This means a longer day (more sunlight) and light rays striking the Earth's surface at higher angles, giving more intensive sunlight and more energy per square meter, compared with a location at the same distance from the equator on the Southern Hemisphere.
Very interesting reading from Tobee 'n DeeDee and Tinyc. Before I read these comments I was going to take a stab at answering the distance question and well... TcT nailed it. My nail would have had just a slighly smaller head awn id dan hiz, cuz he tawked about the major and minor axes of ellipses. and some uddah tings. I also wanted to say something about the closeness of the sun in winter as compared to the farther distance of the sun in summer AND that it is warmer (in summer) more so because of the angle of inclination of the earth's axis to the plain of its orbit around the sun. WITHOUT LOOKING can anyone tell me what degree of inclination is to the nearest half degree of the earth's orbit? The first person to post (or make a comet about) that number gets a north star.
A totally huge hint can be found if anyone feels like watching the following video
You can find my attempt at answer here. I may be measuring the wrong angle, in which case I have another answer. Maybe you can tell me if I am measuring in the right direction.
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