Seasons Misconceptions

The days get shorter, the nights get colder, the leaves on the trees start to turn red, yellow, and orange.  Winter is coming, why do these changes happen where we live every year?

Some people say the Earth is moving around the Sun in its regular orbit and moving farther away from the Sun.  That makes sense but the idea is:

Other people might say seasons happen all over the Earth at the same time.  Again, good idea but its:

Or people believe, it's winter when it's cold, and summer when it's hot: 

Why do we believe such things?  Well, it might be we don't haven't understand the tilt of the Earth.  Is it all about the tilt?  Yup!  It really is all about the tilt.

Let's start at the beginning...The Earth revolves around the Sun in an orbit, or path.  At one time astronomers believed the orbit was perfectly circular.  In 1609, an astronomer named Kepler, using math and observations calculated that the Earth's orbit was in an oval, or slightly elliptical.

If we include the tilt of the Earth and this slightly elliptical orbit, this movement results in four seasons; summer, autumn, winter, and spring.  But, not all over the Earth...

Because the Earth is tilted one hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun while the other hemisphere is not.  It's true that when the Northern Hemisphere is enjoying winter, the Southern Hemisphere is enjoying summer.

We need to remember that the world is an very LARGE planet compared to us little humans.  What we experience in our neighborhood could be completely different in the state next to us, or even across the entire world.  I think that's why people love to travel...it helps us understand our world and our neighborhood a little bit better.