Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Spring is Officially Here!

Spring is here, but what does that mean?  Why is TODAY the official start of spring?  Check out this article about Spring, Seasons and Weather.  What did you learn?  What does it make you wonder about?

117 comments:

Antonio said...

First comment

Anonymous said...

One thing I learned was that today, the hours of night and day are about equal (equinox) because I never knew that that ever happened nonetheless today!. Today is the Vernal equinox, and it says in the article, "The vernal equinox is the date when night and day are nearly the same length," which, as I have already stated, did not think ever happens. Yet this is still not as good as the Summer Solstice where there is much more daylight than there is nighttime.

u don't know me said...

I learned that there is actually an official term for spring occuring earlier in the year. This term is called "season creep". Also, the cause of season creep is because during the spring, warm air can come upwards from the south before the cold air has descended from the north. For these reasons was I surprised that there was an official term for the coming of spring earlier than usual, which is called spring creep.
This article makes me wonder about what other irregularities can occur in the coming and changing of the seasons. For example, in my previous response, I wrote about how spring can come a little bit earlier each year. Therefore, after I read this article, I wondered what other irregularities and oddities can occur naturally in the changing of the seasons.

u don't know me said...

@AnCh373
I agree with you when you expressed your surprise that the spring equinox, or vernal equinox, was today. For example, in your response you wrote about obliviousness to the fact that an equinox of any sort existed at all. Also, I can share your feeling of mild shock, because I to had no idea there was even such thing as an equinox. For these reasons can I agree with you when you say that you had no idea that today was the spring equinox.

u don't know me said...

@AnCh373
I agree with you when you expressed your surprise that the spring equinox, or vernal equinox, was today. For example, in your response you wrote about obliviousness to the fact that an equinox of any sort existed at all. Also, I can share your feeling of mild shock, because I to had no idea there was even such thing as an equinox. For these reasons can I agree with you when you say that you had no idea that today was the spring equinox.

Anonymous said...

I always wondered why daylight increases during the spring and the summer besides the fact that we mess with the clocks. In this article it answered my question. For instance "In spring, the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt toward the Sun and the length of daylight rapidly increases." This answers my question because it specifically gives a scientific explanation of why the days are longer because of the Earth's tilted axis.

Anonymous said...

I learned about the Vernal Equinox because I did not know that this was when the day and night were almost the same length. Also I learned that the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt toward the sun and the amount of daylight is increasing rapidly. I found this article very informmative about the start of spring and it really helped me understand it. It makes me wonder what the other seasons are like and what makes them happen or begin. This artlicle also answered a lot of the questions I had about daylight and the start of the spring season.

Anonymous said...

I agree with @AnCh373 because this article also taught me that the hours of the day and night are equal today because todays date is when the vernal Equinox occurs. The Vernal Equinox is around the day March 21. It could be March 20 or March 22 depending on when the Vernal Equinox occers. I also learned that the earth gets warmer because of the axis increasing towards the earths sun.

Language Arts Student said...

After I read the article about the First day of spring I learned that the vernal equinox is the date when night and day are nearly the same length. I thought that was interesting and something I never knew because I always thought that the day time period was longer than the night time period. I thought that it was interesting how the gravitational pull has the power to pull both planets around and to spin them into orbit. So i always thought with such power you don't really have a persice control over what is happening like lineing the planets up to form a eclpise etc.I always thought that it would take thousands of years for the day and night to be the exact same length (or at least close to it). So in the end that is what I learned from the article and what I felt was pretty interesting from the article.

Language Arts Student said...

@ Anonymous said
I thought that the vertical equinox was also new and interesting because I always thought that day time was longer all the time until daylight savings comes along and switches that around. I didn't know that this only happens when the Earth positions it self at the right, angles, to have the north and south facing the sun at certain times of the day. I thought that this would never happen before the article but i could also infer such a thing to happen with my previous years of science classes because of the power of the gravitational pull and how it can spin things into orbit and make the solar system rotate all around each other like the picture on the side of the article. Therefore that is why i think that the Vernal Equinox was interesting and that was one of the most important pieces of info that i got from reading this article.

Language Arts Student said...

@ Anonymous
I thought that the vertical equinox was also new and interesting because I always thought that day time was longer all the time until daylight savings comes along and switches that around. I didn't know that this only happens when the Earth positions it self at the right, angles, to have the north and south facing the sun at certain times of the day. I thought that this would never happen before the article but i could also infer such a thing to happen with my previous years of science classes because of the power of the gravitational pull and how it can spin things into orbit and make the solar system rotate all around each other like the picture on the side of the article. Therefore that is why i think that the Vernal Equinox was interesting and that was one of the most important pieces of info that i got from reading this article.

hi said...

I thought this article was definitely learning material. At times it was a bit perplexing and hard to process. It was kind of a lot of information being "thrown" at you at once. Although, i did learn something interesting that i have never learned before. In the text it says," The vernal equinox is the date when night and day are nearly the same length and the Sun crosses the celestial equator(a declination of 0) moving northward." I thought this was interesting because i never knew there was a time when the night and day were the same length. This was an interesting article and i thought it was very well written!

hi said...

Anonymous, i agree with you because i learned the same thing. i thought the vernal equinox was interesting too, just like you said. You said how the equinox was interesting because the length of the day and night were the same time. I found that interesting also.

panther502 said...

One thing that I learned from the article was that there is a spring equinox and a vernal equinox.

panther502 said...

I agree with hi. This is learning material and we could learn more about spring. Spring is an important season because flowers bloom, it might have storms, most likely probably not snow! It's a time to be joyful and happy. Learning more about it is interesting. But, so far, the equinoxes were the most interesting. I think that there is quite a difference between the two equinoxes. And it's interesting. And other people would probably want to learn about spring too!

Anonymous said...

@ U don't know me
I agree because with all that we have learned about this kind of topic in school, I find this really interesting. The term 'season creep' in the article, says, "this term relates to the signs of spring occurring earlier in the year." Of all the many thing we learned during our astronomy unit, this was one interesting fact that I really would have liked to have known.

Trevor said...

One thing I learned from the article is that there is one type of equinox called a vernal equinox. A vernal equinox is when the day and the night are nearly the same length. "At this time it is the most common time for tornadoes and frequent thunderstorms with hail and high winds in the northern hemisphere. In recent decades "season creep" has been observed. This term relates to the signs of spring earlier in the year."said http://www.universetoday.com/71719/first-day-of-spring/. So that is what I learned from the article. I also discovered in the spring the axis of the earth is increasing its tilt toward the Sun and the length of daylight increases dramatically. The hemisphere gets warmer and plant growth flourishes.

YouJustGotCerved said...

I learned that there is a vernal equinox. According to the article, the vernal equinox is when night and day are nearly the same length and the sun crosses the celestial equator. This means that spring happens when the day and night are almost the same length. This is what I learned.

YouJustGotCerved said...

@Anonymous
I agree with you because before I read this article, I didn't know what the vernal equinox was. After I read the article, I did. This is why I agree with you.

mnm said...

I wonder why the season of sring does not just start when the warm weather does because last year it snowed on the first day of sring so it didn't seem like it wasn't winter. Also i think it would be good to change the weather when the season changes because it would be easier to know when to plant gardens and plants or to farm.

mnm said...

I learned that on the equinox the day and night are almost equal. I did not know that something like that could happen because that is only 2 days in a year that are that way. i also learned that in spring the earth is increasing its tilt towords the sun causing it to be warmer nicer weather outside.

Kate O. said...

I learned from this article. I learned that that the vernal equinox is the date when night and day are nearly the same length. I also learned that in spring, the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt toward the Sun. I think this article teaches us a lot about how Spring starts and it also teaches us a lot about Spring itself. It taught many things that I had not known before, therefore, I learned a lot from this website.

Emma said...

I learned so much from this artical including how the equinox effects the seasons and how the earths rotats. I nthe artical it says It is the date when night and day are nearly the same length and the sun crosses the celestial equator.

The1 said...

I think that this is interesting because not all other planets rotate on an axis. this makes we wonder why our planet is so special to have a tilt. this causes 2 days a year where we have perfectly 12 hours of light and 12 hours of night. i wonder if any other planets are like this?

Man on the Moon said...

This article is very informative but I have not learned anything new. This article is just a bunch of hard vocabulary which describe what happened and tells you what the meaning of them. I have already found out this information at my summer camp. So therefore this article has actually helped because it told me info I already know.

SmOrEs said...

I learned that even though there is still snow on the ground in some places, flowers start to bloom. Today (yesterday since I'm doing this on the 22nd) is the beginning of spring because the Earth is tilting toward the sun slowly, hence increasing the heat and warmth on the untied states. this make me wonder that if we were to suddenly fall out of the Sun's gravitational pull, would we still have seasons? If we didn't how would we survive? thinking about this even more, one way that we could grow crops and survive would be to live under ground, but that raises a question. What would happen if a earthquake happened? From the earlier unit in Sinusas's class, i know that fault lines are dangerous. if we were to live underground, then we would have to live somewhere that is not near a fault.

Man on the Moon said...

The1 I disagree with you because you say it was interesting and I don't think the same. Even though our planet rotates on an axis that doesn't mean we are the only ones there are others. Actually most planets rotate on an axis.How is it cool that the day is even it may be balanced for the number of hours but it isn't actually balanced for us because we don't wake up at 12:00 am and we don't sleep at 12:00pm. So therefore there is no special effect on the day of the equinox.

Pandanut12 said...

I learned about the tilt of the Earth's axis making spring because we didn't go that far in depth with that particular subject in 5th grade. I know this because we burned lunar cycles and seasons and eclipses into our heads until I never wanted to hear the word "Earth" again and never knew that spring was experienced AS THE Earth was tilting towards the sun! This is why I learned about the tilt making spring.

Pandanut12 said...

The1
I agree with you because not all planets rotate on an axis. Mercury, for example, does not. One side of it is colder than ice and the other is hotter than fire. If it were to rotate than it would not always be either freezing or warm on either side, which is proof that not all planets have axies.

alcatrazjail said...

I learned that the earth tilts toward the sun during Spring. I was taught this in 5th grade but later forgot. When I read it hear it was like hearing it for the first time again. In the story it says,"In spring, the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt toward the Sun and the length of daylight rapidly increases. The hemisphere begins to warm significantly causing new plant growth." I also learned that the hemisphere itself warms and makes the earth warmer.

alcatrazjail said...

@Pandanut12 I disagree with you. While we didn't go to in depth about the earth in 5th grade my class did explain that very thoroughly. We learned a lot about the seasons, earth's axis, and earth's tilt.

RandomRandomAwesomeName said...

pandanut12
I agree with you and that we know its spring because of the earth's axis. You said, "I learned about the tilt of the Earth's axis making spring because we didn't go that far in depth with that particular subject in 5th grade." This is how we know it's spring.

ACHOO-OUCH-YUCK said...

It's when my stupid allergies and bees and bugs come out! >:(

Kevin O said...

This article is very informative but I didn't learn anything new. In 5th grade I learned about the equinoxes and that i had forgotten some of the things in the article, I remembered most of the things in the article. This is why I think that the article is informative but I remembered most of the ideas in it.

Emma said...

Kate O said.....
I learned that that the vernal equinox is the date when night and day are nearly the same length. I agree with kate because this i one of the many things that i also learned from reading this article. I found this very interesting and i would love to learn more and research more.

Anirbas said...

Before I read this article, I didn't know why spring was usually associated with flowers and other plants. The article says, "in spring, the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt toward the Sun and the length of daylight rapidly increases. The hemisphere begins to warm significantly causing new plant growth." This basically says that the Earth gets warmer, due to the tilt of the earth, and it makes it easier for plants to grow. That is why when we see pictures of plants and bright green grass, we usually think of spring.

Anirbas said...

I agree with Pandanut12, because pandanut12 said that they didn't know what caused spring, and said that the tilt of the Earth causes spring. This is right from the article, where it says, "In spring, the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt toward the Sun and the length of daylight rapidly increases." This means that pandanut12 was right, and the tilt of the earth towards the sun is what causes spring.

StephanieZ said...

I learned that scientists didn't just choose a random day and decide to make it spring, but that there are actually factors that contribute to making that specific day spring. For example, the article said that the first day of spring is when the vernal equinox happens, and according to the article, "The vernal equinox is the date when night and day are nearly the same length and the Sun crosses the celestial equator...". That is why there really are factors that make March 21st a good day for spring and spring is not just decided to be on a random day.

StephanieZ said...

@Kate O.

I agree with your comment. I also learned that the vernal equinox is when night and day are the same length. Before I read this informative article, I believed that there was only one day that was equal in terms of night and day, and I did not know what it was called. I learned what it was called and how many days were like that. That is why I agree with your comment.

Marissa S. said...

This article was very interesting, and I learned many things. One thing that I lerned was that dueing the spring season the Earth is increasing its tilt torwards the sun. Since it tilts closer to the sun it increases the amount of daylight we have and warms the Earth more. The warmness of the Earth is very noticable. The effect of the Earth being warmer is that flowers and trees bloom. In the spring the Earth recives alot of rain. I wonder why the season of showers and flowers is called spring and what makes everything blooom in spring.

Marissa S. said...

@Emma I agree with you that I learned how the equinox effects the sesons. The earth tilits torward the sun and warms up the earth which starts the season spring. Also that the amount of daylight that occurs increases during spring and summer. I learned that equinox effects the seasons and how the earths tilt effects the weather.

Lauren said...

After reading this article I learned that the spring equinox is when day and night are the same length. Also that during spring the Earth's tilt is increasing towards the sun. I wonder if this is also trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is increasing Global Warming.

Lauren said...

@SmOrEs I disagree with you because when the Earth is tilting closer to the sun, it's not getting that close. It's only tilting slightly and it wouldn't affect the gravitation pull. Therefore this spring and summer may just be a little warmer, than previous years.

Cav98 said...

This article makes me wonder how we came to understand how the equinoxes and the earth movement. I wonder this because in the article it explained so many things that seem very complex and hard to discover. For example the article mentioned how there were to equinoxes on which day and night took up equal parts of the day. They even pin pointed the date they occurred on. This seems like a hard thing to discovery and an even harder thing to understand.

!DANCE! said...

After reading the article about the first day of Spring, I learned that that the vernal equinox is the date when night and day are nearly the same length. I briefly went over this in 6th grade and nearly forgot it from 5th grade. So this type of equinox is when the night and the morning/ day are the same lenght. After that the days get longer and the nights are shorter.

!DANCE! said...

@Anonymous
I agree with you when you said that you learned about the vernal exqunox. I also did nto know what it was before reading about it in this article. After reading about this type of equinox, I found out that it is when night and day are nearly the same length. That is why agree with you when you said that you learned about the vernal equinox.

Unknown 7 said...

I learned that spring officially starts when there is a vernal equinox. This happens around March 21st. I also learned that this is the day when day and night are about the same length.
One question I had was:
Why is there more rain in April? The article answered my question because it said, "The rainfall associated with spring follows trends more related to events created by ocean currents and ocean temperatures." I think this happens because the earth gets closer to the sun rapidly so the oceans get affected by the suns gravitational pull. Also, there might be more precipitation because the heat from the sun is greater causing more or the water to evaporate, go up into the air and form clouds, and fall back down as rain.

Unknown 7 said...

@Anonymous
I also wondered why daylight savings happens. The article fully explained why this happened. It said that we get closer to the sun quickly increasing the amount if daylight because of the tilted axis. I can guess that we get farther away from the sun when we quickly lose daylight. Because of this, we set our clocks back. That's why I agree with you that this article gives a nice and brief explanation of why this happens.

Michelle R said...

This article was very informative. I learned many things and read some interesting facts. For example, I learned that in the spring the length of daylight rapidly increases. Also during spring the hemisphere starts to tremendously warm up which causes new plant growth. In addition, I learned that the rainfall in spring is actually related to the events created by ocean currents and temperatures! All of these facts were surprising to me, therefore making this article informative and interesting!

Anonymous said...

@Emma
I noticed your entry had many mistakes which could mean you rushed to get it finished. For example, you spelled article as artical. Also you said, "...earths rotats..." instead of earth rotates. In addition, you wrote, "I nthe artical it says..." when you probably meant, in the article it says. These spelling and grammatical errors lead me to think you rushed through this blog comment and should probably read through your blog before you submit it next time! :)

Anonymous said...

@Emma
I noticed your entry had many mistakes which could mean you rushed to get it finished. For example, you spelled article as artical. Also you said, "...earths rotats..." instead of earth rotates. In addition, you wrote, "I nthe artical it says..." when you probably meant, in the article it says. These spelling and grammatical errors lead me to think you rushed through this blog comment and should probably read through your blog before you submit it next time! :)

Emerson34 said...

I learned that the first day of spring in the Southern Hemisphere is the same day as the first day of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. The article said the vernal equinox, when the center of the Sun crosses the celestial equator, in one hemisphere is the same day as the autumnal equinox in the other hemisphere. I learned many things about spring in this article, but this is the most interesting one.

Emerson34 said...

@ Emma I agree with you that I learned a lot about how the sun affects the seasons. When the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt towards the sun, it is spring or summer. However, when the Earth is tilted away from the sun, it is fall or winter. Therefore, the sun is important when it comes to the seasons because whatever way the Earth is tilted towards the sun changes the season.

ShyWolf32 said...

One thing a learned from this article was that during spring in the northern hemisphere tornadoes and frequent thunderstorms with hail and high winds. This is because in the text it said, "This is the most common time for tornadoes and frequent thunderstorms with hail and high winds in the Northern Hemisphere." Even though I already knew that around spring and summer tornadoes and thunderstorms happen alot , I didn't know hail happens in the spring.

ShyWolf32 said...

@ Michelle R I agreed with you that the article was very informative. It did have alot of information about spring, the weather and why spring happens.

RyanT. said...

I wonder why we mark the seasons. This is because it makes no sense to name each phase thing that the earth goes through. Can't we just call all year suminprall (that is short for all the seasons combined)? It makes no difference if we do change the name of the phase things that the earth goes through. That is what I wondered after reading this article.

RyanT. said...

@panther502

I agree. This is because I learned these two things too. Even though I learned them back in fifth grade, a lot happens in two years!. This was one thing that I learned from this article. That is why I agree with you panter502.

KirillR98 said...

I learned that there is an official term for spring occurring earlier than usual. It is called season creep. Season creep occurs because warm air can come from the south before all the cold air has settled in the north. I was extremely surprised that the cause was only because of the air, not because of global warming. Therefore, this isn't a bad sign, but just an odd occurrence.

KirillR98 said...

@YouJustGotCerved
I also learned that there was something called the vernal equinox. This occurrence is when the night and day are almost the same length because the sun crosses the celestial equator. This is what I learned from the interesting article.

Kibble said...

I learned a few things from this article about spring. One thing that I learned was, what exaclty happens that causes it to be the first day of spring on Earth. The article says that the Vernal Equinox is the date when day and night are about the same length and the sun crosses the celestial equator moving northward. For a while I had been wondering what defines March 21, as the first day of spring. And now I know that its when the sun crosses the celestial equator moving northward, and the date when day and night are very close to being the same length. Now I only wonder if other planets in outer space also have a spring or something like it.

Ghost said...

I thing I learned is that The vernal equinox is the date when night and day are nearly the same length and the Sun crosses the celestial equator. I did not know this before I read this article. I thought this was interesting because it gave me more questions about the topic and "grabbed" my attention. Some of my questions are: What does it mean by "nearly" the same length. How far away is "nearly". Has the measurement ever been "perfect". This is why I learned something and was interested about this topic.

Ghost said...

@ Ryan T
I do not agree I believe that the seasons should have names so that this way we could tell if it was going to be hot moist cold or dry outside. I do not agree that just calling the whole year "Suminprall" will make anybody happier but, instead make them mad that they decided to wear a swimming suit to a frozen lake. Or wearing a winter coat and a ski mask when the state is in the middle of a giant heat wave. This is why I do not agree with you that make the whole called "Suminprall"is a wise decision.

ZAMZAM said...

Something new I learned was that, in spring, the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt toward the Sun and the length of daylight rapidly increases. The hemisphere begins to warm significantly causing new plant growth. I didn't know this before. I always wondered why the earth became warmer and colder in different seasons of the year, and was not aware that the tilt increases and decreases. Also I didn't know that plant growth occurs due to the hemisphere of earth being heated. This was something that I found new and interesting.

ZAMZAM said...

@ Kibble I agree that I learned a few things from this article about spring. One thing was what exaclty happens that causes it to be the first day of spring on Earth. The article says that the Vernal Equinox is the date when day and night are about the same length and the sun crosses the celestial equator moving northward. For a while I also wondered what defined March 21 as the first day of spring. Now I too know that it's when the sun crosses the celestial equator moving northward, and the date when day and night are very close to being the same length.

Kibble said...

@ AnCh373
You said that you had learned that during the vernal equanox, night and day are nearly the same amount of time. What had you thought before you learned this? I had also found this to be a new interesting fact but I had never thought about the exact time so I was pretty intreagued after learning this. So what was Your reaction, and did it lead to any new wonderings?

Sir Awesome said...

I learned that Spring is a time when people celebrate the fact that they have made it through the past year alive. "Festivals celebrating the fertility and renewal that the first day of spring represents have been recorded throughout documented history." says that throughout all history people celebrate the end of winter. I had never realized this before and though it to be quite interesting that this has happened since we can remember. That is what I learned from this article.

Somebody probably said...

@ u don't know me
I also learned that the official term for early spring is called season creep. I though this was quite interesting. I would not have known it had I not read this article. This was a fairly surprising fact and I'm glad that I learned it from this article.

Anonymous said...

One thing that I learned from this article is that the vernal equinox is the date when night and day are nearly the same length and the Sun crosses the celestial equator moving northward. I’ve heard of it before but never knew that that is what the vernal equinox is. In addition, one thing that I have always wondered is the reasoning behind why days in the spring are so much longer! After reading this article, I learned that days are longer in the spring time is because the axis of the Earth tilts toward the Sun.

Anonymous said...

I agree with you @Kibble because I also learned things from this article that relates to spring like what causes it to be spring. I heard about the vernal equinox before and never knew it was the cause of springtime. After reading this article, it makes so much more sense to me that spring has longer days and a specific date for when springtime comes.

Kate O. said...

@Emma. I also learned very much from reading this informative article. I learned mostly about how the equinox effects the seasons and how the Earth rotates like you stated in your comment. I learned about how the sun crosses the celestial equator as you also said. This is why I agree with you comment.

Matt W. said...

After I read the article I learned that the vernal equinox is the date when night and day are nearly the same length and the Sun crosses the celestial equator moving northward. I had never heard of the vernal equinox before, and it seems weird that day and night could be almost the same length, I always thought that day was longer than night.

Fish Nugget said...

@SirAwesome I agree with you that it is interesting that the purpose of spring is to celebrate that they made it through the past year alive. It made me think the there are so many things in our life that we have and that we celebrate that your don't know the true meaning and origin of.

FlashSwordsman said...

I learned that the positions of the stars at the start of spring have changed. that leads me to wonder what they will look like in 50 to 100 years.

A FREAKY SWORD SHOULD HAVE said...

@Sir Awesome

I also learned that the vernal equinox is when people celebrated living through the past year. Also that they have been celebrating it for all of recorded history.

Muffin Man 101 said...

I think it's cool that on the equinox the amount of day time and light time are equal. This is cool because during this time the sun sets and rises at the same time. It is weird to think that other days of the year are uneven.

Ryan said...

I did not really laern any thing besides the fact that the equinox used to be determened by the stars.

abc123comewithme said...

I learned that many people celebrate the spring as the end of another year of hardships. i think this is because every thing was dead or dieing (or hiding) and in the spring everything comes out and everyone feels free and the birds are singing the sky is blue and every thing is just "dandy"

AVgleek17 said...

In this article, I finally understood what the vernal equinox really is. I remember in fifth grade trying to wrap my head around it, but it really didn't make any sense to me. Now, I get it and feel a little stupid for not understanding it earlier in my school years. The hours of daylight and darkness are the same, got it. I really enjoyed astronomy, so the whole scientific stuff in this article really enjoyed me. That, and the fact that spring is finally here!

abc123comewithme said...

@ Avgleek17
I totally agree with you! i couldn't wrap my head around how the earth's hemispheres and all the seasons changed but now I do and it makes much more sense! I finally got my a-ha moment!

AVgleek17 said...

@ZAMZAM
I feel like we both found the scientific reasons of how the springtime is so wonderful very interesting. The whole equinox, axis, and the whole nine years about the Earth really interested me, and it seemed to have interest you as well. Overall, this article really taught me a lot, but at the same time I really liked the whole way of making it "stemy" in a way, and I think you felt the same way.

G-MAN said...

I learned that the right ascension at the vernal equinox was origninall in the constellation Ares. This was new to me because I had never heard of right ascension before but after some internet searching I found this out what it means. The right ascension is where the sun crosses the celestial equator. The celestial equator is basically taking the equator and giving it a new diameter that can be infinitely large. So the sun originally crossed this cellestial equator in the constellation Aresn according to the article it is now in Pices. In conclusion, I learned that the right ascension of the vernal equinox originally was in the constellation Ares but is now in Pices.

G-MAN said...

@u don't know me
I also learned that season creep is a term used when spring seems to occur earlier in the year. Before reading this article I was not very familiar with the term and I also see why you would think that season creep isn't an official term because it is so informal. I think that this year we had a season creep of sorts because many of my flowering trees bloomed over a week before spring started when they normally bloom two weeks into the season. In conclusion, I also learned that season creep means that there are signs of spring happening earlier in the year.

simeong said...

One thing I had learned is that the vernal equinox marks the first day of spring. The seasons are based on the tilt of the earth axis. Did you know that the waves are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun.

Anonymous said...

Preach it sister

Peter P said...

I learned that the vernal equinox is the date when night and day are nearly the same length and the Sun crosses the celestial equator moving northward. I also learned that the right ascension of the vernal equinox was originally in the constellation Aries, but is now in Pisces. That's why I learned many different things about the First Day of Spring.

Peter P said...

@RyanT
I disagree with you because they should have the names for the seasons because they give you an idea of what the temperature's for a couple of months will be. That's why the names of the seasons should be kept.

Jessm said...

I learned that the reason why it is warmer in spring and summer is because the earth's axis is tilting toward the sun. This is during spring when it's tilt increases. The days rapidly increase in length, because of all the sunlight. Also because of all the sunlight new growth starts in that area. This is why the weather is very warm and bright and the days are so light during the summer.

Jessm said...

I agree with Matt W. You said that you learned that a vernal equinox is when day and night are the same length. I didn't know that and it does seem weird that the sunlight could be out for the same amount of time as it is dark. I had never heard of that before, so I agree with you

Anonymous said...

What I learned is the vernal equinox is the date when night and day are nearly the same length and the Sun crosses the celestial equator. I never new that. I never knew that. I thought that this site was very informational. I learned a lot from reading this page. I always just thought it did that in a certain months every year, well, i guess i was wrong.

Anonymous said...

I agree with simeong because i never knew a lot of stuff that i read in this artical. Like the waves are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun. I never new that. i thought this site was very informational cause there was a lot if stuff I dint know about till i read this.

Grace S. said...

After reading this article, I learned that the Vernal Equinox is the date when night and day are the same length. I wasn't quite sure that this was true before reading this. Until now, I never really thought about how day and night could each be 12 hours long, during the vernal equinox. Prior to reading this, I heard about the Vernal Equinox many times before. However, I didn't know what was so special about it and what made it a day that was so well known. Now I am a lot more familiar with this equinox. I learned a lot from this article, First Day of Spring.

Grace S. said...

@ Kibble,
I agree with your statement. You said, "For a while I had been wondering what defines March 21, as the first day of spring. And now I know that its when the sun crosses the celestial equator moving northward, and the date when day and night are very close to being the same length." I was thinking the same exact thing as you. I knew that the first day of Spring is held on March 21, but not that it had so much more of a meaning to it. March 21st isn't just "The first day of Spring". It is also when the vernal equinox takes place, where day and night are the same length. They are each 12 hours long. This article definitely answered a lot of questions that I have been curious about.

Avacado said...

This article showed me that spring has an almost designated date, give or take a day, and that seasonal creep can occur and cause early weather patterns earlier than spring. First of all, I think that it is cool that the axis and Earth's rotation are so designated that they can make spring occur on the same day almost every year. Every year when the winter is over and there is a day with almost equal day and night, that is the begginning of spring. In addition, I think that it is no surprise that weather patterns can come before spring. A good example of this was this year when we had little snow in the winter, and lots of warmer weather before March 21st. Even though early warmer weather is nice, I still wish we could of had more snow days this year. Therefore, since this article tells all about the date and seasonal creep of spring, I find this article very interesting.

Avacado said...

@ Kate O.,
I agree with you that this article taught us that the vernal equinox is the day when day and night are almost the same lenght. Like you, I did not know what this was called before, and now I have learned something new about spring. I think it is cool how the sun is always changing the time the sun sets on Earth, but I still don't think that daylight saving times is needed. I understand that they give us extra light in spring at the end of the day, but I don't think setting clocks back an hour is neccessary. Many people loose sleep this day, and it confuses some people. Therefore, I agree with you that this article taught me what the vernal equinox is.

Kayleigh said...

I learned in the Southern Hemisphere, the vernal equinox is when the center of the Sun crosses the celestial moving south and which occurs of the same day as the autumnal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. Atg fisrt I thought "you learn something new everyday". I didn't know that the sun moves to the south and creates the northern hemisphere's autum.

Kayleigh said...

Panter502....
I also thought that is was interesting that there are two equinox.

chocoholicdancer13 said...

One thing that I learned is that in spring, 'the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt toward the Sun and the length of the day is rapidly increasing.' I found this interesting because that explains why it gets warmer in the spring and why the day feels longer. Just like the saying goes, spring ahead, fall behind. When it changes to spring, that is what I think, the days will get longer and the temperature warmer. This makes me wonder could the axis of the of the Earth tilt to far towards the Sun and have the temperatures rise too significantly or could there be a time when the Earths tilt doesn't tilt as much and the temperature doesn't increase as much?

chocoholicdancer13 said...

@AnCh373, I definitely agree with you that it is interesting that the day and night are almost completely equal, but spring has its high points just like summer does (Summer Solstice). And nonetheless, even though there might not be more sunlight in the spring compared to the summer, I think both seasons have the perfect amount of sunlight, and one can't just tell the spring or summer,"Have more sunlight than nighttime," or "I want less sunlight, make it get darker faster,". That just cannot happen. So, I agree with you that is it interesting that the daylight and darkness are remotely equal, but I don't agree that I love the Summer Solstice as much as you do.

Logan S. said...

Something that I learned was that flowers rapidly bloom because of Earths tilt on it's axis in the Spring. Even if snow is on the ground the plants WILL STILL bloom because of the earth's axis.I also learned that warm air invades the lower altitudes and cold air is still descending from the poles. I wonder if the earth didn't have its axis's then would there even be seasons?

DisneyDance&More said...

i learned that the axis of the earth is tilting more towards the sun in spring. this tilting makes the days longer and the nights shorter. i would like to find out more on this interesting topic

Logan S. said...

I agree with you chocoholicdancer13 because I also thought that that was interesting and something that i did not know before. I think that the days are shorter but I do think that it does get warmer. I thought that your wonder was very interesting and I was too thinking about that in my head always.

Ali M. said...

In school we have done a lot of units in science about space, and the way the earth orbits around the sun. I know how the seasons change, how the length of the days change, so most of the things in this article I already knew. The one thing that I did not know was the word Vernal. I am guessing it has to do with spring. When I looked it up, it was a characteristic of spring. So it vernal equinox pretty much means, spring equinox. I did not really learn anything new or interesting in this article, but this is all I found.

Ali M. said...

I do also think it is interesting that the flowers bloom depending on the tilt of the earth, even if their is snow on the ground. I am guessing that the flowers feel the sunlight through the snow, and know to start the blooming process. The tilt of the earth doesn't increase the warmth, it increases the amount of sunlight, which will in turn increase the warmth. This is one thing that I also found interesting in this article.

Ryan35 said...

I learned that the first day of spring is called the vernal equinox. This is when day and night are equal in length and mark the beginning of spring.

Ryan35 said...

@ Logan S.
I agree that it is interesting that flowers will bloom even when there is snow on the ground because. This could be because the flowers can "feel" the warmth from the sunlight.

whencupcakesattack said...

What I learned was that there is an actual word for spring symptoms coming earlier into the year. In the article it says, "In recent decades “season creep’ has been observed. This term relates to the signs of spring occurring earlier in the year." I know this year we have experienced something along the lines of "spring creep", but I never knew that was the name of it. This spring, we started getting weeks of 70 to 80 degree weather, so being able to finally learn what that is called greatly interests me. What I wonder is what other possibilities can we have that has something to do along the lines of similarities to "spring creep". For example, if we had an early winter into a later spring, would that start becoming a little ice age? Anything along those lines make me wonder greatly.

whencupcakesattack said...

@AnCh373
I agree with you. I never really thought that there was a point in time when the days and nights were the same length. I thought they always had their own separate lengths. It really interests me to figure out the possibilities to experience the same lengths of days and nights. It also makes me wonder if they mean that only the first day of spring is like that, or is it the whole spring season?

Ben H said...

I learned that on the first day of spring and autumn, the amount of day and night is equal, because the earth's tilt is equal in the northern and southern hemispheres. What I wonder about this is what makes the earth tilt, and if it is important that the earth tilts.

Ben H said...

@Anonymous
I agree that I had the same question answered. I always used to think that day and night were the same length all year, and that the clocks were what made days later and earlier.

Imagine11 said...

After reading this article, somethings I learned is some more interesting facts about the Equinox. One interesting fact that was said was that, "In spring, the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt toward the Sun and the length of daylight rapidly increases. The hemisphere begins to warm significantly causing new plant growth." This really showed what is actually happening during the beginning of Spring. Another fact is, "The vernal equinox is the date when night and day are nearly the same length and the Sun crosses the celestial equator(a declination of 0) moving northward. In the Southern Hemisphere, the vernal equinox is when the center of the Sun crosses the celestial moving south and which occurs of the same day as the autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere." This gives a more detailed description of what an equinox is. Therefore, this article really helped give more information on an Equinox.

Imagine11 said...

@u don't know me
I can relate to your comment because you talked about what else you learned from the article. You said that, "I learned that there is actually an official term for spring occuring earlier in the year. This term is called "season creep"." You also said that, "Also, the cause of season creep is because during the spring, warm air can come upwards from the south before the cold air has descended from the north. For these reasons was I surprised that there was an official term for the coming of spring earlier than usual, which is called spring creep.
" Therefore, since I also thought these facts were interesting and left me thinking about them after, I can relate to your comment.

Sarah G. said...

From this artical i learned that, " In the Southern Hemisphere, the vernal equinox is when the center of the Sun crosses the celestial moving south and which occurs of the same day as the autumnal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere." So in other words this artical is saying that the spring equinox happens int the Southern Hemisphere while in the Nourthern Hemisphere the Autum Equinox is happening. I had never known this before i had read this artical. This artical made me wonder about how many Equinoxes happen every year and what is the differance between the Spring Equinox and the Autum Equinox, so i whent on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox and found the answers. It says that, "An equinox occurs twice a year (around 20 March and 22 September)." This answers my first question about how many Equinoxes there are. As for my other question i could not seem to find the answer. I dont think that there is a differance though because an Equinox is when day and nooght are the exact same length, both 12 hours. I think that they are the same thing that just happened to happen twice a year.

Sarah G. said...

@DANCE! I also learned that an eqinox was occured on the first day of spring and autum and that an equinix was when night and day are the exact same amount of time. I thought it was king of interesting that the same amount of night and day occured on the first day of autum and spring. This is what i also learned and thought was interesting from this artical.

usawildcat11 said...

In this article I learned that "In spring, the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt toward the Sun and the length of daylight rapidly increases." I didnt know that before It is very interesting I didnt know why this happened I just thought that the earth rotated and it was colder sometimes and hotter others. I still wonder aboutwhy they named the seaskns there names. what is it about them that gave them there names?

usawildcat11 said...

Grace S. said...
I think that that is very important and interesting. I actuallyt already knew tha. but what I want to ask you is, what are you still curiouse about. what is it about how the moon affects it and the clouds and the tempature. what is it that just keeps your mind puzzled?

CandyS. said...

I learned that the vernal equinox in the Southern Hemisphere is the same day as the autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere. Using my background knowledge and from what I learned in the article, I believe that the first day of spring in the southern hemisphere is the first day of autumn in the northern hemisphere. I never knew this, in fact I thought that the first day of spring was the same everywhere around the world, with varying temperatures of course! However from this article I was able to find out that the first day of spring differs on the hemisphere.

CandyS. said...

After reading this article, I realized that many other factors are included for the rise of the earths temperatures and amount of rainfall during the spring, other than the tilt of the earths axis. Through common sense, I knew that as spring and summer edged nearer, the temperature and amount of rainfall would rise and although I knew it had to do with the rotation of the earths axis, I didn't realize that many other factors came into play as well. " While spring is a result of the warmth caused by the turning of the Earth’s axis, the weather in many parts of the world is overlain by events which appear very erratic taken on a year-to-year basis. The rainfall associated with spring follows trends more related to events created by ocean currents(El Nino) and ocean temperatures." I did not know that other factors affected the temperature and amount of rain during spring.