Day and Night

• Earth’s rotation on its axis is what gives us day and night.

• The part of the Earth that is receiving sunlight is experiencing daylight (day).

• The part of the Earth that is not receiving sunlight is experiencing darkness (night).

• Earth rotates towards the east. In other words, earth rotates in an anticlockwise direction when viewed from above the north pole.

• This makes the sun appear to move from east to west.

• Therefore, people that are further to the east will see the sunrise before people that are further to the west.

• Since Earth rotates on a tilt relative to the sun, one hemisphere experiences more sunlight than the other.

• For the hemisphere tilted towards the sun:

• More than half of the hemisphere is experiencing daylight at any given time.

• Days are longer and nights are shorter.

• For the hemisphere tilted away from the sun:

• Less than half of the hemisphere is experiencing daylight at any given time.

• Days are shorter and nights are longer.

The hemisphere tilting towards the sun experiences more daylight than the hemisphere tilting away from the sun.

(Images: Commons sibi, Wikimedia Commons)