Question

Please help me understand the sun's relationship with earth during 4 seasons. Plus, I am so confused with perihelion and apihelion!!!!!

Answer 1

Perihelion is the point in the orbit closest to the sun, aphelion is the point in the orbit furthest from the sun

Answer 2

Let's ignore seasons for the moment and concentrate on why the north and south poles are cold, but the equator is warm.

It's to do with the angle that the ground is compared to the light coming from the sun.

When the sun's light is perpendicular to the ground then an given cross-section of light will be spread over a smaller area compared to when the light is coming from an angle. See the picture

Answer 3

So the further away you get from the equator, the larger an area the sun's warmth is spread over.

Now, the seasons come about because the Earth spins on an axis of rotation that is tilted compared to its orbit. This means the angle that the ground makes to the sun's light changes over the year, hence the amount of energy per unit area received from the sun varies over the year.