Eli5 Why does the “directness” of sunlight change its heating effect

Question

Bill nye says our change in seasons is largely due to the fact that the directness of the sunlight hitting a given place changes due to the earths tilt and position in its orbit.

Why does the directness of light create more heat (hitting at equator for example), while glancing light rays (hitting antarctica) produce less heat?

In: 92

Answer 1

There was a recent ELI5 where someone likened it to a torchlight beam being shined straight on (small circle) or at an angle (large oval). Same total amount of energy spread out across a much larger area, therefore each point must be getting less energy.