Originally posted by rjensen11
The relative POSITION of the earth has little to do with its temp. as long as you don't move it millions of miles away from the sun(or closer for that matter). Take the Northern Hemisphere, for example. During the time that it's the furthest away from the sun, that is summertime, the warmest part of the year. During wintertime (for the northern hemisphere) it is closest to the sun. The major factor for the relative distance the Earth is from the sun(since it follows an ellpical, not circular orbit, and thus does not have a constant distance throughout the orbit) is the tilt of the earth. That also explains why Texas and Florida are much warmer than Minnesota normally is(but there are freak incidents where Minnesota is warmer, like during January when it's 80ºF...)
Your physics is flawed,
rjensen.
The Earth does have a slightly eliptical orbit, but it is among the most regular among the planets in the Solar system. Also, it is the tilt of the Earth's axis that moves the north and south hemispheres closer and farther to/from the sun, causing the seasons.
At, say "12 o'clock" in the Earth's orbit, the axis is tipped so the North Pole is pointed away from the sun. This does two things: moves the Northern Hemisphere
farther away from the sun, and causes the sun's energy to stricke the atmosphere in the Northern hemisphere at a shallower angle. Both of these things contribute to an overall drop in temperatures, or winter, for the North at that point in the Earth's orbit. This also makes for the winter solstice or shortest day of the year.
6 months later, at the "6 o'clock" position, the opposite is true: the Northern Hemisphere is both closest to the sun, and is receiving the most direct sunlight, due the fact that the North Pole is now tipping towards the sun rather than away from it. That makes for summer, warmer temperatures, and the summer solstice, or longest day of the year, here in the Northern Hemisphere.
In between times, at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock, the axis is neither pointed towards, nor away from the sun. Thus we get temperate and mild spring (and the vernal equinox, or equal day/night) at the 3 position and temperate autumn and the autumnal equinox at the 9 position.
Reverse all this for our friends Down Under.
Sage, your physics is also flawed. As the odd-shape football spins, the "center of gravity of the center of gravity" would stay in the same position. but the center of gravity itself would oscillate back and forth widely, with the center of that oscillation being located where the CG of the double-ended football had been. Nonetheless, the object would wobble heavily as it spins due to the shifting of the actual center of gravity. This is what causes car tires to need balancing to provide a smooth feel through the steering wheel in real life. A street car wheel/tire combination weighing 30 pounds will wobble noticeably if out of balance by as little as half an ounce.
Both those things being said, I'll add this little factoid:
If you enlarged a billiard ball to the same diameter as the Earth, it would be neither as truly round nor as smoothly surfaced as the Earth is currently. Pretty amazing.
