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Asked by arianarose3 to Ed, Katie, Sam, Steve, Vera on 21 Jun 2011.
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Sam Tazzyman answered on 21 Jun 2011:
When people say it’s the longest day they mean because it’s the most hours of daylight. This is actually only true in the Northern hemisphere – the half of the Earth north of the Equator. You have probably noticed that it tends to be daylight for longer in the summer and shorter in the winter. This is because of the way the Earth is lined up compared to the Sun. The Earth spins around on its axis once every day, but the axis is tilted a bit. This means that the Northern hemisphere gets more Sun at some times of year, and the Southern hemisphere gets more Sun at other times. I have tried to find a good diagram of this but haven’t managed to, but here is the Wikipedia page about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solstice
Which has some diagrams that might help.
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Katie Marriott answered on 21 Jun 2011:
A good answer fro Sam. It’s all about the tilt of the Earth on it’s axis and how close the Northen Hemisphere is to the sun.
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Steven Daly answered on 21 Jun 2011:
Yeah what Sam said! I wonder if it is the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere? That is when the shortest day happens.
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