Original Project
Weather and Climate II: Seasonal Differences
As the earth moves around the sun over the course of a year, the orientation of earth’s axis with respect to t…
Item CL117001: At a given place, the sun is higher in the sky in the middle of the day in summer than in winter because that place is closer to where the sun is directly overhead in the summer than it is in the winter.
A student observes that in the middle of the day the Sun is higher in the sky in the summer than in the winter. Which of the following statements explains her observation?
- In the middle of the day in the summer, the place where the Sun is directly overhead is closer to where she lives than it is in the winter.
- The angle of the Earth’s axis relative to the plane of the Earth’s path around the Sun is different in summer than it is in the winter.
- The difference is not caused by changes in the angle of the Earth’s axis. It is caused by changes in the Sun’s position in the solar system.
- The Sun does not actually rise higher in the sky in the summer. The difference she observed is caused by the days getting longer in the summer than the winter.
Answer Choice |
Overall |
Grades |
Gender |
Primary Language |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n = 1022 |
6–8 n = 549 |
9–12 n = 466 |
Male n = 514 |
Female n = 481 |
English n = 897 |
Other n = 95 |
|
| A. | 25% | 25% | 25% | 26% | 24% | 26% | 21% |
| B. | 35% | 29% | 42% | 35% | 36% | 35% | 36% |
| C. | 18% | 22% | 14% | 18% | 18% | 18% | 22% |
| D. | 22% | 24% | 19% | 21% | 22% | 22% | 21% |