If the sun is at it’s relative peak at noon, why does it take so much longer to set than it does to rise for at least half of the year?

Question

The closer you are to the date of the summer solstice, it seems to gradually take up to 10 hours for the sun to set. Yet, the sun doesn’t begin to rise at 2am. Why is that?

In: Planetary Science

Answer 1

The sun generally *isn’t* at its peak at noon. Time zones are large, the sun cannot possibly be simultaneously directly overhead at 12:00 in two cities hundreds of miles apart.