9781422283738

Earth , s

orbit

Sun

Earth spins round

∆ Minutes before the Sun rises, it lights up the eastern sky.

Sun Time

∆ On the side of the Earth facing the Sun, it is daytime. On the side facing away, it is night.

  The Sun provides us with a   regular pattern of day and night.

and brings daylight once more. This regular cycle of day and night gives us our basic unit of time, the day . It is properly called the solar day, or the day according to the Sun. Shorter periods of time are measured by splitting the day into 24 hours, each hour into 60 minutes, and each minute into 60 seconds.

Early in the morning, if you look to the east, you can see the Sun rise above the horizon. By midday it reaches its highest point, and then it starts descending. In the evening the Sun sets below the western horizon. The following morning the Sun reappears over the eastern horizon

∆ In northern Norway in winter, the Sun never sets. That is why Norway is known as the land of the midnight Sun.

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