A hypothetical situation in which every location on Earth experiences 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness would be best represented by a diagram that illustrates an equinox.
During an equinox, the tilt of the Earth's axis is such that it is neither tilted towards nor away from the Sun. This alignment results in nearly equal amounts of daylight and darkness across the globe.
In such a diagram, you would typically see:
- The Earth positioned in such a way that its axis is perpendicular to the line between the Earth and the Sun.
- A representation showing both hemispheres receiving sunlight equally, with a clear demarcation of the day/night line (the terminator) bisecting the planet in such a way that the illuminated side and the dark side are of equal size.
However, it is important to note that in reality, the Earth never experiences this condition uniformly at all locations simultaneously due to the tilt of its axis and its curvature, but this diagram is useful for visualizing the concept of equal day and night durations.
1 answer