Re: Does the sun rise and set in the same place everyday?

That is a good question. A long time ago it was very important for people to know the answer. It appears that many ancient structures such as Stonehenge in England, the Myan temples and others were designed to determine and predict the answer to to your question.

To begin it would help if you had access to a globe. You will notice that there are three imaginary lines on the globe, the Equator, the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The earth does not sit straight up and down in space. It is tilted about 23 degrees. Because of this tilt, the north pole always points toward the North Star, Polaris. While the earth goes around the sun, sometimes the north pole is pointed toward the sun and it is summer in North America. Six months later, the north pole is tilted away from the sun and it is winter in North America. If you were to walk around the tilted globe, you would notice that sometimes the north pole is tilted toward you and sometimes it is pointed away from you. There are two times the the tilt is not toward you or away from you, this is when the equinoxes occur and it is spring or fall.

Since we live in the northern hemisphere, this tilt of the earth is why we have seasons. It is also the answer to your question. During the summer you have noticed that there is more daylight than darkness. Around June 21 each year the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer, which is about 23 degrees north of the Equator and the north pole is pointing toward the sun. On that day you would notice that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. At noon on that day you would also notice that the sun is not directly over head but just a little south of you. Each day after June 21, the sun would be just a little bit further south at noon. It would also be a little further south at sunrise and sunset. On about September 21, the sun would be right over the Equator. On these days there is the same number of daylight hours as darkness hours.

In the winter you have noticed that there is more dark hours than daylight hours. On December 21, the sun would be directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, which is about 23 degrees south of the Equator and the north pole is pointing away from the sun. The sun now at noon would be much further south of you and would appear to rise in the southeast and set in the southwest.

I have included the three links below for you to explore the solar system and learn more about it.

seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/nineplanets.html
earthrise.sdsc.edu/
www.hawastsoc.org/solar/eng/homepage.htm