Why December Has The Longest Days
Subscribe to MinutePhysics! December has the longest solar days (noon-to-noon) because of the weird way a combination of the axial tilt of the earth and the eccentricity of its elliptical orbit...
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In the Northern Hemisphere, December has the fewesthours of daylight and the most darkness because at thattime the tilt of the Earth's axis is pointing the NorthernHemisphere away from the Sun. However, ascounter-intuitive as it might sound, December actuallyhas the longest days of the year. Modern clocks,of course, think every day is 86,400 seconds long,but that just the average length of a solar day over thecourse of the year. A solar day is what you actuallymeasure with a sundial, or equivalently it's the time ittakes for a line of longitude on the Earth to rotate backto face the Sun again. This actually requires slightlymore than 360 degrees of rotation because the Earthisn't just sitting in space rotating, it's also movingaround ...
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In the Northern Hemisphere, December has the fewesthours of daylight and the most darkness because at thattime the tilt of the Earth's axis is pointing the NorthernHemisphere away from the Sun. However, ascounter-intuitive as it might sound, December actuallyhas the longest days of the year. Modern clocks,of course, think every day is 86,400 seconds long,but that just the average length of a solar day over thecourse of the year. A solar day is what you actuallymeasure with a sundial, or equivalently it's the time ittakes for a line of longitude on the Earth to rotate backto face the Sun again. This actually requires slightlymore than 360 degrees of rotation because the Earthisn't just sitting in space rotating, it's also movingaround ...
