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

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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?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

There are 2 reasons and most comments so far only focus on 1 reason: that the light hitting earth at an angle (near poles) is spread over a larger area (than when it would straight hit close to the equator), which is totally true

The 2nd reason though is that light travelling close to the equator has to travel less distance through the atmosphere than when it would when travelling to a pole

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