GEOG 2050 Chapter : Chapter 2 Lecture
Document Summary
Chapter 2: solar energy to earth and the seasons. Intro: the energy from our sun sets into motion the weather systems and the ocean currents that greatly influence our lives. It is this solar energy, along with the sun"s tilt, orientation, revolution, and rotation, that produce our daily, seasonal, and annual patterns of changing day length and sun angles. Differential heating: things heat up the same, equator is closer to the sun (latituted) Our solar system condensed from a large, slowly rotating and collapsing cloud of dust and gas called a nebula. Gravity- the mutual attraction exerted by the mass of an object upon all other objects, was the key force. The planetesimal hypothesis says suns condense from nebular clouds with planets forming in orbits around the central mass. Speed of light=300,000 kmps (kilometers per second) or 186, 000 mps. Or, light travels 9. 5 trillion kilometers per year, a light-year.