Well, finally putting two and two together, (as an earth science teacher I'm supposed to have this stuff down by now... so embarrassing...) and remembering the tilt of the planet and its influence on different latitudes, I realized that the sun here in Taiwan has a more direct path overhead than in California, (closer to the equator) so the sun lingers below the horizon for a shorter amount of time than in California, where the sun moves at more of an angle through the sky. This would also mean that there would be a less pronounced difference in daylight hours between winter and summer.
Wanting confirmation and actual figures to prove my mini-enlightenment... I did a little internet research and found a very cool site:
http://www.gaisma.com/en/
where you can look at dawn, dusk, sunrise, sunset, daylight hours, etc. for a great variety of locations in the world! Complete with visuals! For example,
Táizhōng, Taiwan - Sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk times, graph
Compared with
Notice the thicker bands of dawn and dusk times for California! (The chopped look is not an error- it is offset for daylight savings time). There is also much greater variation between the length of day during summer and winter in California.
I thought it was so interesting!
Táizhōng, Taiwan - Sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk times, graph
Darkness: light blue Dawn: dark blue Sunshine: yellow Dusk: pink
Compared with
Vacaville, California, United States - Sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk times, graph
Notice the thicker bands of dawn and dusk times for California! (The chopped look is not an error- it is offset for daylight savings time). There is also much greater variation between the length of day during summer and winter in California.
I thought it was so interesting!
5 comments:
you science teacher you.
let me ask you a question: if you had a plane that never stopped, with enough supplies and everything on board, could you chase light/darkness (day or night, your pick) perpetually? get back to me on this coachie.
hmm. interesting question. I think I might say that if you were able to fly at the exact speed opposite of the rotation of the earth, to adjust for wind speed variations that arise, you would be able to hover in perpetual light/darkness. You would also have to adjust for any solar eclipse that may occur in different regions... but I would have to say "yes".
that is, until the death of the sun. then you would have to find another star to hover around...
let's not think that far.
okay, are you up for another question?
if the time zones are all different, at what point does it become another day? is it from where you're standing, or when the earth rotates to see the light of another day, and do the days ever catch up to each other?
i'm confused now.
for that question, i'll refer you to a website:
http://toi.iriti.cnr.it/uk/timezone.html
it explains it pretty well... ;)
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