</noinclude> <!-- 5. Show with the help of a diagram how the earth's relationship to the sun produces the seasons. --> [[Image:Seasons.jpg]] {{clear}} The Earth's tilt on its axis causes the seasons. When the axial tilt points a hemisphere away from the sun, it is winter, and when it points it towards the sun it is summer. This is ''not'' because the distance between that part of the Earth and the Sun varies, but rather, it is because the angle of the sunlight is either more direct, or less direct. The Earth's elliptical orbit about the sun causes its distance from the Sun to vary by a lot more than the axial tilt does, and it does not affect the seasons.
