How does the sun sets

These masers occur at sites where massive stars are being born. He got his Ph. How does the location of sunrise and sunset change throughout the year? Advanced The sun appears to rise on the eastern horizon and sets on the western horizon. As to the second part, it is a little complicated: Consider an arbitrary location on Earth to make matters simple, consider a place in the northern hemisphere.

This page was last updated on Jan 28, About the Author Jagadheep D. Pandian Jagadheep built a new receiver for the Arecibo radio telescope that works between 6 and 8 GHz. Similar Questions that might Interest You How much can the location of sunset differ from due West? Intermediate How does the position of Moonrise and Moonset change? Intermediate Why does the location of sunrise change? Beginner Why can we see the sun's image before sunrise and after sunset? Random Question. What is a Cepheid variable?

Most Recent. Is speed of light the same everywhere? Beginner How does Venus have sulphuric acid in it's clouds? Now think about what would happen if you stood exactly at the North Pole. You'd still be moving, but you'd be turning in a circle as Earth spins on its axis.

You may wonder why you don't feel this speed: it's because human beings have no 'speed organs' which can sense absolute speed. You can only tell how fast you are going relative to something else, and you can sense changes in velocity as you either speed up or slow down. But we cannot really tell whether or not we are just moving at a constant speed unless something else tips us off!

Suppose you are in a car traveling down the road. How can you tell how fast you are going? The speedometer tells you how fast your wheels are turning, but you could be standing dead still, spinning your wheels trying to get off a patch of ice, so let's remove the speedometer from the car. Many, if not most, prehistoric cultures tracked these rising and settings points with great detail.

If they had jagged mountains along the horizon, the exact points could be readily remembered. Without a suitably interesting horizon, standing stones could be arranged to line up with the various rising and setting points. Or, tree poles could replace the standing stones.

Or, rock cairns could be used. How does this work? The dioramas simulate the rising and setting points of the Sun, and its tracks across the sky at summer solstice longest track , winter solstice shortest track , and the spring and fall equinoxes medium track. A bead placed on one of the tracks simulates the Sun rising along the eastern horizon, travelong along the sky, and setting on the western horizon. Imagine a tiny version of yourself standing in the middle of the wooden disk.

The molecules then begin to play with the light — bouncing it back and forth between themselves. Blue light has a shorter wavelength than red or pink light. This means it can only bounce between the molecules for a shorter distance.

Blue light can easily come out the other side — giving us a blue sky. We already know Earth spins in its place. Remember that during sunset in Australia, we are circling away from the Sun and no longer facing it directly. This means sunlight has to travel through a thicker slice of the atmosphere to reach us.