ABSTRACT
The Earth makes a full 360-degree rotation on its axis every 24 hours. This rotation creates the sunrise, the westerly motion of the sun across the sky, and the sunset. Additionally, the Earth makes a complete orbit around the sun once every 365 days. The angle of the Earth’s rotation is askew to its plane of orbit. This creates our seasons. As the Earth moves around the sun the length of each new day is different from that of the preceding one. In the winter the days are short. They gain a few minutes each day through the spring until they peak in summer and begin to get shorter again through the fall. The height of the sun also changes every day-the sun will be highest in the summer and lowest in the winter. Because the pattern is consistent year in, year out, we can predict with certainty the exact position of the sun at any given time, date, or location.
