Question

Fan + Medal

Answer 1

So we can clearly see that in elliptical path the sun is much more closer to the earth at some points while in circular path the distance between the sun and earth is much greater and remains constant.

Answer 2

Is that making sense?

Answer 3

How realistic is this question? I'm not sure I really agree with the premise of the question to begin with.

Answer 4

So A?

Answer 5

What is your course title?

Answer 6

Earth & Space

Answer 7

I don't believe it's A because during an elliptical orbit it will get closer to the sun, but it will also spend more time away from the sun causing there to be more days further away allowing there wiggle room for the average temperature to even out...

It just seems like this question can only feed into the misconception that the earth is closer to the sun during the summer...

Answer 8

Yes, this is what i was thinking too!

Answer 9

Okay Kainui one of these option is the answer to the question, they're not trying to trick me

Answer 10

Can option D be considered?

Answer 11

I don't know about D

Answer 12

This question seems worded weirdly, the orbits don't cause change in seasons, that happens from the rotation of the axis of earth.

Answer 13

It's just too imprecise to say what the answer should be, there needs to me some numbers and calculus going on here for me to give you a straight answer. "more elliptical" doesn't necessarily mean "strictly closer" since it also implies that it goes further as well if it maintains the same total energy.

I think @Abhisar is right in saying D.

B is pretty vague, and C seem to be definitely wrong.

Answer 14

I guess we can use some conics kai and figure it out xD

Answer 15

Yes, I think the question is tricking us. The answer should be D only...

Answer 16

D was wrong

Answer 17

It's not D

Answer 18

I am no longer interested in this question. Bye, good luck.

Answer 19

The energy does not affect global temperature on the earth

Answer 20

How @iambatman ?

Answer 21

If we're talking about it being warm at certain parts it doesn't have much to do with the sun as I said earlier it's related to the axis rotation of the Earth itself.
I'm not sure about B, there would need to be some calculation...

Answer 22

I already got the question wrong and I have no chance to fix it so there's really no point in debating about ot

Answer 23

The statement only solar energy may be suspicious. If D is wrong then option A is the only one which seems correct to me...

Answer 24

If you're only interested in getting right answers, you're in the wrong place. We want you to learn, this question is pretty interesting I suppose.

Answer 25

@CaseyCarns Is right. We are right. It is her professor that is wrong and we know the answer as far as the poorly answered question can possibly be. Carns was never interested in knowing the truth, only in getting points.

Answer 26

Well, I was interested in knowing the actual reason. Thank you everyone for participating in the discussion :)

Answer 27

I'm sort of skeptical about A

Answer 28

My guess,
- length of semi major axis of ellipse = radius of circle
- more circular implies eccentricity tending to 1

Maybe we should look at this Q from point of solid angle.

Answer 29

When is the earth ever in a more or less elliptical orbit? What does this even MEAN? Nothing, it's a vacuous statement.

Answer 30

Kai they are just saying to assume...

Answer 31

Does it not make perfect sense that you can change the Earth's orbit from being more or less elliptical and maintain the same average global temperature?

Answer 32

It could be A actually, like if it was a circle the energy distribution would be same everywhere right, but for an ellipse there are certain points where it can gather more energy, mhm, but this is without doing the math and assuming.

Answer 33

There's no content nor context to this, it is meaningless... This never happens and they have not described how it were to happen if it did.

Answer 34

I agree haha, idk I guess. I rather not make things up either.

Answer 35

Okay, let's research a lil bit on it..

Answer 36

Read this
http://www.bgs.ac.uk/discoveringGeology/climateChange/general/causes.html?src=topNav

Answer 37

Mhm...that's interesting.

Answer 38

I didn't knew that, it says orbit changes from ellipse to circular at certain periods..

Answer 39

I don't remember learning this in astronomy xD

Answer 40

So option A was cortrect...

Answer 41

Yeah I guess so, pretty much what I was saying earlier, about my guess on energy with shapes haha.

Answer 42

Not exactly. Unfortunately this only says the climate is warmer during the time when the earth is closer to the sun. This does not say the average temperature rises. This would be like having a box full of sand and then shifting it so that the level of the sand is higher on one side rather than the other. This doesn't imply that there is more sand in the box: As you can see from the picture they've shown, the elliptical orbit also ends up further away on the aphelion is colder than the circular orbit as well. Not to mention the earth spends a much longer time period while further away since Kepler's laws say that the planet sweeps out "equal areas in equal amounts of time".

So it might be that the average temperature is in fact colder during an elliptical orbit.