During the winter, in which direction does the sun set at the equator?
115939
The sun always travels from east to west.  No matter where you are or time of year
85444
Earth rotates. Sun on one side.
75399
The reason there is differing amounts of daylight is that the Earth's axis is tilted with respect to the plane of its rotation about the sun. When the north pole is tilted towards the sun, the northern hemisphere days get longer. The point in the Earth's orbit about the sun where the plane through the Earth's axis that is perpendicular to the Earth's plane of orbit ALSO passes through the sun itself (i.e. the Earth's rotation axis is lined up with the sun, north end closest) is the summer solstice. When the same plane passes through the sun again, only with the south pole closest, that is the winter solstice. At summer solstice, the length of the day is longest in the northern hemisphere. At winter solstice the day is shortest in the northern hemisphere. The opposite is true in the southern hemisphere. On the equator the lengths of the days don't change at all! The further you get from the equator, the more the length of the days change with the seasons.\n\nSo let's talk northern hemisphere. If the longest day is around June 21 (summer solstice) and the shortest day is Dec 21 winter solstice, you can think of the length of the days as changing smoothly from shortest to longest as you move from winter to summer solstice. If you do the geometry to figure out how the length of days changes with the seasons, it looks a lot like a sine wave. It's actually shaped a little differently because the Earth's orbit is not a circle--that would make a sine wave exactly for the length of days--but instead an ellipse. But it's still pretty close to a sine wave. If you look at a sine wave, you'll notice that as the wave approaches the bottom, slows down its descent until it almost "flattens" at the bottom, but not quite. Then after the bottom, it goes up more steeply until somewhere in the spring it is changing as fast as possible (pretty near to the vernal equinox), then begins to slow down again until it hits the peak at the summer solstice. After the summer solstice, the longest day, the length of days begins to fall, slowly at first and then ever faster, until somewhere in fall (pretty near the autumnal equinox) it's changing as fast as it's ever going to. Then it begins to slow down, until it hits the minimum at the winter solstice again. If you look back at the description about, you'll notice that the rate at which the length of days change also varies with the season. In fact, the rate of change is like a sine wave, too, only it's shifted by a season from the wave that describes the rising and falling of the length of the day itself.\n\n\nFor the latitudes farther away from the equator, the amplitude of the sine wave is larger. For the southern hemisphere it is flipped upside down compared to the same latitude in the northern hemisphere. And on the equator, the "sine" curve as zero amplitude--that is, it's a straight line.\n\nIn calculus you would say that the rate of change of a function (the "derivative" of the function with respect to time) tells you how fast the daylight is changing on a given day. And, in calculus you also learn that the rate of change of a sine wave is a cosine wave--or just another sine wave shifted back by 90 degrees. And 90 degrees of the sine wave describing the length of days corresponds to one season on Earth!
84038
The weather is determined by the heating and cooling of different areas of earth. If it is winter in the northern hemisphere, it is summer in the southern hemishere, basically because of amount of exposure each hemisphere gets to the sun. This will cause different weather conditions in different areas. \n\nFor example, in Hawaii, the surf is good on the South Shore, but flat on the North Shore in the summer. In the winter conditions are reversed. Hawaii being in the northern hemisphere but relatively close to the equator gets its southern summer swells from winter storms generated near New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere. During the winter, the northern swells are generated by winter storms in the North Pacific.
803
This depends on the latitude you are. On the arctic circle, at noon. The further south you get, the later it will set, hitting 6am at the tropic of capricorn. On the antarctic circle it won't set on December 21st.
17978
Lines of latitude.  For example, I live at 41 degrees north of the Equator.  It's like there's a line that goes around the globe East-West.
32571
Because the earth is tilted on its axis, we have seasons.  The seasons vary the length of daylight depending on the season.  When it is summer, and the days are long, in the northern hemisphere, it is winter in the southern hemisphere and the days are short.\n\nIf you think about this, you will realize that it can't be true of the equator.  Where the two hemispheres meet, the days don't vary by season.  The farther you are from the equator, the greater the length of the day (or night) -- so at the poles the sun deosn't set in mid-summer or rise in mid-winter.
450708
I guess it's time someone writes down a correct answer...\n\nThe earth rotate on its axis, which runs through the north and south poles.  It so happens that the earth's axis is not perfectly vertical.  Because the axis is at an angle, we spend half the year (it changes during the equinox) with the north pole (and hence the northern hemisphere) tilted towards the sun - this is summer.  We spend the other half of the year with the south pole tilted towards the sun (hence, the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun) - this is the winter.  Now I will leave it up to you to think about why this should make the summer days longer than the winter days.  Try this:  grab a basketball (better yet, a globe), turn off all the lights, point a flashlight at it and spin it with the axis rotated towards the light and with the axis rotated away from the light.  Follow a single point on the top half of the ball and see if you can make sense why this point stays in the light longer when the axis is pointed towards the light versus when the axis is pointed away from the light... \n\nIt's a nice point to make that in the southern hemisphere (Australia, Chile, South Africa, etc.) the days are longer in the winter and shorter in the summer.  If you think for a moment, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out why...
1059409
The tilt of the earths axis is what gives the northern and southern hemisphere different seasons. when the northern hemisphere is inclined towards the sun its summer here (June), when the southern hemisphere is inclined towards the sun its winter here (Dec). In between these times its hottest at the equator!\n\nThe tilt of the earths axis changes over geological time though, so the seasons will inevitably change.
141083
An atmospheric closed circulation rotates counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.
253237
If you want the time and date, it's 8:26 AM EDT June 21st and 7:22 PM EST December 21st this year. (Sky & Telescope magazine Almanac 2006)\n\nIf you want to see what they are, put a globe on your table and stand where the North Pole is leaning toward you.  If you (the Sun) look at the globe from the level of the Earth's center, you'll see that the Sun is at its northernmost latitude - The Tropic of Cancer.  That's the summer solstice.  Six months later - on the side where the South Pole points toward you, the Sun is overhead at its most southern latitude - The Tropic of Capricorn.  That's the winter solstice.\n\nIt seems odd, but because of the ellipticity of its orbit the Earth is actually closer to the sun in the Northern winter than it is in the summer - by about 3-4 million miles.  As you can see from the exercise above, though, from the Northern Hemisphere viewpoint the sunlight is very slanted in the winter and more directly overhead in the summer.
1038
The above is an incorrect answer. Seasons do not occur because of the distance of the earth to the sun. In fact, during winter, the earth is physically closer to the sun and during the summer, it is furthest.\n\nTilt is key. Its important that not only is there a tilt on the earth, but the direction of that tilt is not altered during the rotation of the earth around the sun.\n\nThe Northern hemisphere is always tilting away during the winter, and towards the sun during the summer. The tilt of the earth is 23 degrees. So lets say you're at 45 degrees lattitude. During the summer, the sun will rise to 45+23 (68) degrees because the tilt is towards it, and in winter, the sun only goes to 45-23 (22) degrees. There is a big difference between the sun going up 22 degrees and the sun going to 68 degrees.\n\nWhen the sun goes to 68 degrees, it is more overhead, and the earth therefore receives more of its rays. During winter, light rays are striking obliquely, and hence do not warm the earth as much.\n\nThis is why there are less variations of seasons around the equator, where the sun is almost always directly overhead all the time.\n\nAnd this is why seasons are reversed on the southern hemisphere. When the northern hemisphere tilts towards the sun, the south is tilting away.
960531
south hemisphere 23° 26′ 22″  south
162127
The Sun, in its seasonal movement through the sky, passes directly over the equator twice each year on the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes, which occur in March and September (respectively). At the equator, the rays of the sun are perpendicular to the surface of the earth on these dates.\n\nPlaces near the equator experience the quickest rates of sunrise and sunset in the world, taking minutes. Such places also have a relatively constant amount of day/night time on every day throughout the year compared with more northerly or southerly places.
1010103
It depends upon what your latitude is.  The farther north you are in the northern hemisphere, the longer the daylight will be during the summer.  In fact, the sun won't set at all at the North Pole!  This is all thanks to the tilt of the earth.  During the summer in the northern hemisphere, the earth is in such a position around the sun that it is the northern hemisphere that is receiving the most direct rays.  It is on the summer solstice that it reaches the zenith.  From that point forward, the daylight will start to decrease until the earth is on the opposite side of the the sun.  At that date (winter solstice) the tilt of the earth will cause the northern hemisphere to receive the least direct rays and thus, the longest night will occur.
4078
In that hypthetical case: \nEarth will be always cold at the poles, and warm at the equatorial belt.\n\nSome parts of the poles will never see sunshine, and the seasons in northern and southern hemispheres will be static, unchanging.\n\nThe tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, situated at 23.5 degrees North and South of equator, respectively, would lose their significance.
73074
Last answer is correct. During winter, the earth is physically closer to the sun and during the summer, it is furthest. \n\nTilt is key. Its important that not only is there a tilt on the earth, but the direction of that tilt is not altered during the rotation of the earth around the sun. \n\nThe Northern hemisphere is always tilting away during the winter, and towards the sun during the summer. The tilt of the earth is 23 degrees. So lets say you're at 45 degrees lattitude. During the summer, the sun will rise to 45+23 (68) degrees because the tilt is towards it, and in winter, the sun only goes to 45-23 (22) degrees. There is a big difference between the sun going up 22 degrees and the sun going to 68 degrees.\n\nWhen the sun goes to 68 degrees, it is more overhead, and the earth therefore receives more of its rays. During winter, light rays are striking obliquely, and hence do not warm the earth as much.\n\nThis is why there are less variations of seasons around the equator, where the sun is almost always directly overhead all the time.\n\nAnd this is why seasons are reversed on the southern hemisphere. When the northern hemisphere tilts towards the sun, the south is tilting away.