It's Winter Solstice 2014! Whilst the pagans in UK celebrate the solstice in Stonehenge, let's see why during solstice, the sun stands still.
There are a lot of explanations for this, but to make it simple; it's basically the Earth's axis tilting according to its orbit. You might be familiar with this, seeing scaled presentations of the earth being tipped by 23.5 degrees. As the earth goes around the Sun, the northern part of the Earth's axis is always pointed closely to the Polaris in the sky. What this means is; this axis is sometimes tilted toward the Sun, sometimes it's far. That moment when it's furthest from the Sun is the "Winter Solstice".
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credit to: scienceblogs.com
Consider as well, that when the northern part away from the Sun, the southern part is towards it, so it's basically summer down there. In a way, it is more accurate to call it "The December Solstice", rather than "The Winter Solstice" since there's like 900 million people who lives in the southern part of the equator.
But for the people of the North, "the Sun stands still" the literal interpretation of "solstice". Does the sun really stand still? Observation exercise: Notice that when you go to one location everyday at the middle of the day (try to make it as in the "middle" as possible), you notice that the position of the Sun in the sky, changes throughout the year, its lowers on winter and higher on summer.
The Sun is at its lowest point during midday (I'm not saying that the Sun gets depressed or something) during solstice. The Sun stood still because it gotten to the lowest point and has stopped going lower. Basically it's the shortest day and the longest night of the year.
At first, the changes are slow, then it's peaks it's speed. Fastest would be at the vernal equinox during March. Opposite of Winter Solstice, the mornings are longer then. By June Solstice, the Sun is highest in the sky and its stands still again.
So that's a bit of science for y'all. If I'm going to be honest, I hope that it's winter solstice every day. How about you?
