Download reasons for seasons

Name _______________________________ Date ________ Period ____
REASONS FOR SEASONS
(Review Part 1)
day
year
solstice
summer
Sun
Polaris
orbit
tilt
winter
winter
summer
Northern
23.5
365
24
axis
colder
warmer
Southern
Hemisphere
circle
rotates
Planet Earth _________________ once around its axis every ________ hours. We call this
period of time a __________. There are _________ days in a ________. It takes one year
for Earth to ______________ once around the ________. If I am _________ years old
(enter your own age), then I have made _________ trips around the Sun during my life.
Earth’s orbit around the Sun traces out an almost perfect _____________. Thus the
distance between the Sun and Earth does not change very much over the course of a year.
So the reason that temperatures are _______________ in the summer and _____________
in the winter is the tilt of Earth’s axis. The Earth being closer or farther from the Sun does
NOT cause Earth’s seasons.
Earth’s axis is tilted __________ degrees toward a distant star called _____________ (the
North Star). As Earth moves around the Sun, Earth’s ________ remains tilted toward this
star, but how Earth is tilted relative to the Sun changes as Earth moves in its orbit around
the Sun.
When Earth is located on one side of the Sun, the tilt causes the Northern Hemisphere to be
tilted toward the Sun. When Earth is on the opposite side of the Sun, this same
__________ toward Polaris causes the Northern Hemisphere to be leaning away from the
Sun. When the ________________ Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun, the season is
___________________ in the Northern Hemisphere and______________ in the Southern
Hemisphere. When the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun, the season is
_____________ in the Northern __________________ and summer in the
_________________ Hemisphere.