What Causes the Seasons to Change?

Earth spins around the Sun, and sometimes we are tilted toward it, making summer. Other times, we're tilted away, giving us winter. It's like a giant game of tilt and shine! ## Matters When Earth is tilted toward the Sun, more sunlight hits our part of the planet, that’s summer. When it tilts away, less light reaches us, that’s winter. The change in how much sunlight we get makes the seasons switch.

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Examples

  1. Imagine Earth is like a spinning top tilted toward the Sun, that’s summer! When it tilts away, that’s winter.
  2. If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, you get more sunlight when you're tilted toward the Sun, that's why it's warmer.
  3. When Earth is tilted away from the Sun, it gets colder, like when your back is to a lamp and you feel less heat.

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Categories: Science · earth· sun· astronomy· seasons · Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.