I’ve lived in my house for a few summers. Ever year around the solstice the sun seems to set in the north. I live in a city that’s laid out like a grid and always just assumed my street was on a slight angle. I just took out a compass and it’s not, the front of my house faces perfectly west and the sun seems to be setting slightly north, to the right of the window. I’m very confused. Is the sun playing a trick on me?
In: Physics
The answer is pretty simple. In the summer it sets further north and in the winter it sets further south. The reason being because of the tilt of the earth. There is a common misconception that the seasons are caused by the proximity to the sun, but that’s false. The earth is tilted at an angle and as it goes around the sun the the pole that’s tilted towards the sun changes. The result is that when it is winter in the northern hemisphere it is summer in the southern. So because it’s summer in the northern hemisphere the North Pole is tilted towards the sun which causes it to set further north. If you watch a sun rise you’ll notice the same phenomenon. In the winter it is the reverse with the sun setting a little further south.
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