Department : Surveying and Geoinformatics

Group leader :

Group : 1 (one)

Topic : A case study of Day and Night

Course code: svi 215

Course title : Field Astronomy

Names : Reg No. (2018334001 - to- 2018334021)

DAY AND NIGHT

INTRODUCTION

Day and night is a phenomena that has been around since the existence of the universe. The universe is
the sum of everything that exists in the cosmos, including time and space itself. But our attention is
rather based on exploring the mysteries, fact, and wonders of day and night.

Day and night are two different things, we can attest to this even by their difference in spelling and
pronunciation, this may sound funny but that's all we need in our journey of exploring this particular
subject matter with fun and excitement. As your attention is bestowed to me follow me attentively as I
take you to this smooth ride.

What is Day?

Day to a layman is just the time after sunrise and before sunset while it is light outside, when most living
organism carry out most of their activities, like;feeding, going to work, going to school, farm, business
etc.

But according to Wikipedia, Day is approximately the period of time during which the Earth completes
one rotation around its axis.

Having known what Day is now let's get to know what night is as well

What is Night?

Night to a layman as well is the time after sunset and before sunrise while it is dark outside when most
living organism go to sleep to rest for the hectic day and also to regain strength for the next day.

According Wikipedia same definition of day can also be adopted for night.
Why do we have day and night?

We have day and night because the Earth rotates. It spins on its axis, which is an imaginary line passing
through the North and South Poles.

The Earth spins slowly all the time, but we don't feel any movement because it turns smoothly and at
the same speed.

How long does it take the Earth to turn around?

The Earth takes a whole day (24 hours) to makea complete turn.

Day and night time

Why is the Sun in the sky at some times and not at other times?

At any time half of the Earth faces the sun. This part has day. The other half of the Earth faces away from
the Sun. It receives no light. It is dark and has night.

The sun is the source of light for day.

Why does the sun seem to move across the sky?

The Sun does not move. It seems to move across the sky starting in the east in the morning, moving
toward the south at noon, and then toward the west as the day ends.

It is the Earth turning that makes it seem as though the Sun is moving.

 Having Done justice to introduction of the subject let's get to know more about it

The Earth is always spinning around – sometimes from where you stand on the Earth you can see the
Sun (this is the daytime) and sometimes the part of the Earth where you are is facing away from the Sun
so it is dark (this is the nighttime). It takes 24 hours for the Earth to spin all the way around, and we call
this a day.

The sun rises from behind the Earth in the East and sinks below the Earth in the West. The time when it
appears is called sunrise, and the time when it disappears is called sunset. The length of time between
sunrise and sunset is called daytime.

The Earth spins around an imaginary line that runs between the South Pole and the North Pole. This line
isn’t completely straight – so, sometimes the North Pole is pointing away from the sun for long periods
of time and it is always dark there, and sometimes the North Pole points towards the sun for long
periods of time and it is always light there.

The Earth is also split into Northern and Southern hemispheres, which are divided by an imaginary line
called the equator. The North and South poles are as far from the equator as you can get. Britain is in
the Northern hemisphere and is slightly closer to the North Pole than it is to the equator.
When the days are shorter, there is less time for us to get heat from the sun, so the weather is colder.
This is why we get winter. When the days are long, there is more time for us to get heat from the sun so
we get hot summer days.

Because the equator is halfway between the North and South poles, the days there are always 12 hours
of daytime and 12 hours of nighttime. There is very little difference between the seasons.

In the Southern hemisphere the seasons are at opposite times to the Northern hemisphere. When it is
summer here it is winter there, and when it is winter here it is summer there.

The shortest day of the year is called the winter solstice and the longest day of the year is called the
summer solstice.

There are two days each year where every place on Earth has 12 hours of daytime and 12 hours of
nighttime. These are called the spring and autumn equinoxes.

DO OTHER PLANETS HAVE DAY AND NIGHT?

Yes! All the planets in our solar system spin on their axes (so does our Sun!) and so they have day and
night cycles. There are differences, however, in the length of day and night — the cycles are made even
more complex by the tilt of a planet's axis and its rate of orbit. Some planets rotate faster than Earth and
some rotate slower. Mars has a day and night cycle similar to Earth. Mars rotates on its axis once every
24.6 hours. Venus turns once on its axis every 243 Earth days (which is only slightly longer than it takes
for Venus to go around the Sun!). Mercury's day and night cycle is more complex. Mercury rotates one-
and-a-half times during each orbit around the Sun. Because of this, Mercury's day from sunrise to
sunrise is 176 Earth days long. The larger planets spin much faster. Jupiter rotates once every 10 hours,
Saturn spins once every 11 hours, and Neptune completes a rotation in 16 hours. Pluto, at the farthest
reaches of our solar system, spins on its axis once every 6.4 days.

Something to ponder: Does Pluto even have a “day” and “night” like we think of on Earth? Pluto is so
distant from the center of our solar system that our Sun would look like a very bright star in its sky!

EFFECT DAY AND NIGHT HAVE ON THE EARTH

Based on the research and observations of Rebecca Kaplan

Day and night have a major effect on earth. My first piece of evidence is Rebecca Kaplan said " So when
the sun is shining on the earth it warms up, after the sun sets it has time to cool down. So in the summer
any location that's about 40 degrees north of the equator, like Hartford Connecticut, will get 15 hours of
daylight each day and 9 hours of darkness. It warms up for longer than it cools. This happens day after
day. So there is an overall warming effect." This shows that daylight is one of the reasons it is hot in
Hartford Connecticut and many other places north of the equator during summer in the northern
hemisphere. My second piece of evidence is Rebecca Kaplan also said " In the winter the opposite
happens, there are many more hours of cooling time than warming time, and day after day this result in
a cooling effect." This shows the number of hours of day and night effect both summer and winter. My
third piece of evidence is daylight and darkness effect animals living on the earth. For example,
according toaviary.owls.com " Many owls sleep during the day, which means they are nocturnal. Others
sleep at night, just like humans!" Without daylight and darkness would some owls not know when to
wake up? Would other owls not know when to sleep. Even if they did it would be a huge change in not
only the lives of owls, but most animals on earth.

IMPORTANCE/USES OF DAY AND NIGHT

It makes a lot of sense that most living organisms have physiological cycles that are in synchronized with
the Earth’s rotation, in view of the importance of sunlight for activity and metabolism of the organism.
That’s what the circadian cycle is all about. Even the expression levels of various genes in an organism’s
cells is in sync with this cycle.

Not all organisms, however, have an obvious dependence on the 24-hour cycle. Some, like mussels, live
in environments between the land and the sea, and thus experience changes based on tidal ebb and
flow – roughly twice every day. Mussels even close their shells when receding tides leave them exposed
to the air.

Yet even so, their gene expression cycle remains in sync not with the tides, but with the same 24 hour
circadian cycle as most of the rest of the biological world.

if we didnt have night and day that would mean the earth wasnt rotating and sunlight would only be
focused on one point so have of the earth would be unhabitable from the cold while the other from the
heat.This will surely affect the earth seasonal circle, food will be hard to get in the sense that if we
happen to be in the region where the sun shines alone it will be very hard for plant to germinate due to
scorching sunlight, they will all die off, this also implies to the region where there is no sun even if the
plants sprungs out they can't germinate because there is no room for photosynthesis.

In summation living things will be scarcely be found on earth because they all depend on each other in
one way or the other to survive.

MYTH ABOUT DAY AND NIGHT

 The Terminator

A terminator or twilight zone is a moving line that divides the daylight side and the dark night side of a
planetary body. A terminator is defined as the locus of points on a planet or moon where the line
through its parent star is tangent. An observer on the terminator of such an orbiting body with an
atmosphere would experience twilight due to light scattering by particles in the gaseous layer.

THE END