Difficulty: Easy
Correct Answer: Equator to the poles
Explanation:
Introduction / Context:
The relative length of day and night varies with latitude. While some places experience nearly equal days and nights throughout the year, others have long summer days and long winter nights. Understanding how this inequality changes as you move from one part of the earth to another is a core concept in physical geography and is frequently tested in examinations.
Given Data / Assumptions:
Concept / Approach:
At the equator, day and night are nearly equal throughout the year, each about twelve hours. As you move toward higher latitudes, seasonal variation increases. In temperate and polar regions, summer days become much longer than nights, and winter nights become much longer than days. Near the poles, during part of the year there can be continuous daylight or continuous darkness. Thus, the inequality of day and night is smallest at the equator and becomes greater toward the poles. The correct direction is therefore from the equator to the poles, not the reverse.
Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Recall that at the equator, day and night remain close to twelve hours each in all seasons.Step 2: As we move toward the tropics and temperate zones, the difference between day length and night length starts to increase in different seasons.Step 3: In higher latitudes, long summer days and short summer nights, and the opposite in winter, make the inequality very noticeable.Step 4: Near the poles, there can be polar day and polar night, where for months the sun may not set or rise at all.Step 5: Therefore, the inequality becomes more marked as we travel from the equator to the poles.
Verification / Alternative check:
Diagrams that show the earth tilt and the distribution of sunlight at solstices and equinoxes demonstrate that the equator always receives roughly equal day and night. Meanwhile, higher latitudes show increasing distortion, with very long days or nights depending on the season. Geographic textbooks often summarise this by stating that the amplitude of day length variation increases with latitude. This provides a clear confirmation of the direction mentioned in the correct option.
Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Poles to the equator: This would imply that inequality is greatest at the equator, which contradicts the basic observation of nearly equal days and nights there.Tropic of Cancer to Tropic of Capricorn: Between the tropics, variation in day length exists but is not as dramatic as in higher latitudes and does not represent the maximum inequality.Tropic of Capricorn to Tropic of Cancer: This describes movement inside the tropical belt and does not capture the increasing inequality found in temperate and polar regions.
Common Pitfalls:
Some candidates read the options quickly and may invert the direction, selecting poles to equator without carefully thinking through the physical reality. Others confuse seasonal variation near the tropics with the extreme conditions at the poles. A reliable method is always to remember that the equator is the zone of almost constant twelve hour days, while the poles experience the most extreme differences, so inequality must increase as you move away from the equator toward the poles.
Final Answer:
The inequality between day and night becomes greater as one travels from the equator to the poles.
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