/sci/ - Science & Math

>>2256744
> I always wondered why, if the seasons were because the sun was farther away, we didn't have EIGHT seasons, since the circuit around the sun had two such changes.

You mean two summers and two winters and so on? If distance from the sun were the cause of seasons, having two summers per year would imply that the Earth is closest to the sun twice during its orbit. That's not the case. This is how it actually works (pic related:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_orbit

But again, that's not the cause of the seasons. It might be for another planet with an extremely eccentric orbit (as shown in the picture), but the Earth's orbit around the sun is very nearly circular.

Also, temperature and weather change gradually throughout the year, so the number of seasons, and the separations between them, are completely man-made. Some places on Earth are considered to have only two seasons (rainy and dry) because that's a more convenient way of describing the weather changes in that location. When you started talking about "eight seasons" it really confused me.