What people on Earth perceive as day and night are actually the result of __________. What?
596684
The correct option is 'rotation of the earth'. When earth revolves, some part of it is directly facing the sun, and the other part is not. That explains the presence of day in one part of the world, and night in the other.
528789
1)Sunlight\n2)Twilight\n3)Midnight\n\nno joke, this is true. See link below.
32936
"The moon does not circle the Earth once a day. The Earth circles the sun once a day. The Moon orbits the Earth about twice every 24 hours. That's why we have tides (high and low)."\n\nSAY WHAT?  Not even close.  There are junior high science teachers weeping over this "answer".\n\nThe earth rotates once a day on its axis.  That is the definition of a day - the time it takes for a planetary body to rotate once on its axis. \nThe earth circles the sun once a year - actually 365.24 days (which is why we have leap years).  That is the definition of a year - the time it takes for a planet to orbit the sun.  As you can tell, planetary years are longer or shorter depending on the distance from the sun.\nOur earth's axis is tilted.  The northern hemisphere is closer to the sun in the summer and farther in the winter.  This is how we get seasons.\n\nThe moon orbits the earth once every twenty-eight days, give or take an afternoon. The phases of the moon are caused by it being in a slightly different position everyday relative to the sun.  \nThe moon does cause tides - its gravitational pull causes the oceans to bulge out towards the moon.  However, there is a matching bulge directly opposite the moon.  THAT is why we have two high tides and two low tides a day.  In addition, the sun exerts a lesser pull, which interacts with the moons pull.\n\nSorry about that - had to correct the flagrant misinformation there.\n\nAs for your question - it is a weird effect, isn't it?  Especially when the moon is closer to a new moon.\n\nWhat happens is that our atmosphere scatters the light from the sun so that our sky is quite bright.(Why is the sky blue? has been discussed here many times).  However, the moon is reflecting enough light so that it is brighter than the surrounding sky and we see it.\n\nWhen the moon is less than full, there is very little light reflected off of the dark side of the moon (what light is reflected is earthshine!)  This light is not bright enough to outshine the sky.\n\nThink of a white sheet (in a dark room) that images are being projected onto.  The sheet will look opaque until someone shines a light onto it from the back that is brighter than the image projected from the front.  That is the basic effect that we are getting - the atmosphere is a sheet, with the sun and the moon both shining on to it.
354795
It is a lot easier to demonstrate this with graphics than trying to explain it in text.  You can likely find a good diagram if you go to google it.\n\nFirst imagine the sun.  Now imagine the earth revolving around the sun.  Keep in mind that the earth and the sun are both extremely small compared to the distance that the earth is from the sun.  this means it's like two specks of dust revolving around each other in a basketball court, to give some perspective.\n\nNow imagine the moon revolving around the earth but ignoring gravitational effects of the sun (for simplicity).  Since the earth is so small compared to these revolutions, imagine that the earth very rarely blocks the light from the sun shining on the moon.\n\nNow when you observe the moon, if it is roughly between you and the sun, it is the backside of the moon that is lit.  This means the only part of the moon that you see is the shadow - or the new moon.  If when you observe the moon it is roughly behind the earth, you get to see the part of the moon that is being shined on by the sun - a full moon.  Since the moon revolves around the earth at a rate different from the rate at which the earth spins on its axis, the moon will change its orientation to give us our progression through the phases of the moon.\n\nJust an additional bit - eclipses are those rare times when the earth's shadow actually DOES hit the moon.. making what would've been a full moon into something else (a lunar eclipse).  The more commonly noticed (due to the drastic change in light during the day :D ) solar eclipses are when the moon directly blocks the sun's light from the earth.  These occur at regular intervals over series' of years.
208149
The truth is, the moon obviously orbits the earth, right? So you look up and see the moon in the time of day, it is at an angle where other parts of the Earth can see it, sometimes the moon is here in the day time because it is on the same side as we are facing the sun, if it is during the night time, we see the moon because it has orbited behind the Earth, it takes the moon a certain amount of time to get around the Earth.
379810
Take a little ball, and put a dot on it with a magic marker or a crayon.  Now turn on a light and put the ball close to it with the dot facing the light bulb. The half of the ball with the dot on it is lit, right?  The half without the dot is in shadow. Now, slowly turn the ball and watch the dot.  As you turn the ball, notice that the dot turns with it and goes into the shadow. The light bulb is the sun, the ball is the earth, and the dot is you. When the dot faces the "sun" and it's lit up, that's daytime.  When the dot faces away and is in shadow, that's night.  The earth turns just like the ball, and just like the ball, whenever it's night for you, it's day for the people who live on the other side. When it's day for you, it's night for them. That's why we have day and night.
774798
This theory sounds like a bunch of balogna (pronounced baloney). The reason that there is day and night is that a giant dragon eats the sun at night. And in the morning, it lays a new sun.\nBut seriously, day and night occur because the earth spins on its east-west axis. On some other planet (Neptune, I think) the sun rises and sets on its north-south axis.
77655
The brain has a separate neural pathway to the optical nerve, separate from the visual path, to detect whether it's day or night.  so when its dark, the brain believes it is nightime and the sleep cycle may inadvertently kick into motion, especially if you're already tired.
910552
Do you really believe that the position of the Earth in its orbit around the sun at the time of one's birth has anything to do with personality or compatibility?  What is this, the Middle Ages?  Wake up and smell the 21st century!
189632
eyes alone.But they were lucky enough that they had no elecricity and they viewed the sky during night with perfect dark back ground. When ever electic supply  fails in my town  I used to view the sky during night. I was able to see the stars and other planets clearly than when there was electic supply illuminating the town.
630789
i want to see the daily path of the sun on the sky:\n\nrising from east and setting to west as everywhere on earth but going through north at noon not south as in northern hemisphere. must be fascinating to see: all shadows at noon pointing south instead of north\n\nlove your beaches too
1144467
On new moon day, the moon and sun are in the same direction from earth.\n\nThe non illuminated portion of the moon is turned toward us. In the bright background of light we are not able to see the moon.\n\nSince the earth rotates about its axis, this new moon is for all in the world.  \nThe sun and moon rises in the east and sets in the west almost with no time difference.\nTherefore the moon is in the sky during day time, even though we are not able to see it.\n\nIn each day, the moon separates from the sun approximately by 12 degree.\n\nAfter one or two days latter, the moon is separated from the sun towards east. Therefore, we see the moon (crescent moon) after sun set for few hours in the west or in the   evening. All persons in the world will view the crescent moon when it is evening for them.\n\nApproximately after seven days, the moon separates from the sun through 90 degree. \n When the sun comes to the zenith, the moon rises in the east. The moon appears as a half moon in the east. For the viewers it is a day time. We see the half moon from the afternoon of this day till mid night in the sky. At mid night it sets in the West. \n When the sun sets in the west the moon is seen in the zenith. All people in the world will see the half moon from mid day to mid night.\n\n\nAfter approximately fifteen days, the moon is separated from the sun through 180 degree. When the sun sets in the west moon rises in the west. We call this as full moon. Through out the night the full moon will be visible and during day time it will not be visible. This is the same for all people in the world. \n\nOne can complete this cycle from Full moon to new moon (in another 15 days).
270854
"Ereb", the Hebrew word used for "evening" means "evening, night". It's an inclusive term. Also, the earth was dark first, then light-the evening and the morning were the first day. Besides that, God reveals here what the timeframe for the honoring of His holy Sabbath is, as it is still kept in various religions,denominations and countries. (Friday evening to Saturday evening. Yes, I know this is controversial.) \nAs for whether "science" or "creation" is correct-they both are! Science is the study of the things that God has made, natural laws (showing "Intelligent Design"), etc. Most of the early scientists were believers in God. Albert Einstein himself could not deny God's existence. You see mathematics, which Einstein used to explain our universe, is the language of God-of order and design. Well, it's all enlightening and wonderful to study. I hope you soon find not only the answers you are looking for, but Truth. Take care. Buttercup
805182
It's always daytime in space. Unless you are stuck behind a planet or a moon or something else, then it's dark as hell... The spining of the Earth creates day and night.
814462
The sea, air, and land are all warmed by radiation (light, infrared, etc) from the sun during the day.  The earth also gives off radiation (infrared) all the time.  During the daytime the radiation from the sun is greater than the radiation given off by the earth's surface so the surface warms up.  At night, no radiation from the sun, but the earth is still radiating infrared, so it cools off.
130436
First of all little “white” lies are only acceptable to some in the general population.  Many still believe that all lies are contrary to best behavior.  But as an example, I get your point.\nThe association of white with good and black with bad predates recorded history.  This generalization is almost universally true in all cultures.\nThe best possible answer goes back to the time before artificial nocturnal lighting.  Humans are visual creatures.  We tend to rely upon and believe what our visual system records.  The eye itself has two kinds of receptors.  These are called Rods and Cones.  The Rods are more sensitive and give us the shades of gray in “night vision.”  The Cones respond to colors and are more active during the day.  Humans see more clearly and with better spatial acuity during daylight hours.\nWhite is a mixture of colors and is only perceived during the day.  Daylight = Better vision = Good.  At night, when the rods take over:  Night = Poor vision = Bad.\nFor a very detail report on vision, try the site below:
1100118
They navigate at night by the light of the moon. So now there is man made light interfering so they are drawn to that light. Therefore they keep circling the light thinking the have reached the moon.\n\nI actually think its quite sad to think how we have disrupted nature that way but now you know at lease.