flux
rallain | December 7, 2009So, it snowed here (in Louisiana). Sure, it wasn't a lot, but it was still a big deal. The following day, there was still some snow on the house roofs. I took some pictures. Here is a shot looking at the North side of a house.
And here is a view of the South side of the same roof.
What is so cool about that? All the houses were the same way. North side of roof = snow. South side = no snow. At first, I was going to use these pictures to talk about flux. Basically, since the Sun is lower in the South sky the southern side of the roof gets more solar energy flux. Then I realized my…
rallain | September 9, 2009I love this question:
Why is it warmer in the summer than in the winter (for the Northern hemisphere)?
Go ahead and ask your friends. I suppose they will give one of the following likely answers:
The tilt of the Earth
The tilt of the Earth makes us closer to the Sun
We are closer to the Sun
Really, that should be at least 85% of the answers. To really answer the question, think of the following key points:
When it is warm in the Northern Hemisphere, it is cold in the Southern Hemisphere
The Earth's orbit around the Sun is very close to being circular
The seasons depend on the time of…