Question

the diagram below shows earth and sun “top down,” looking down at the north pole. look at the autumnal and spring equinoxes. the line separating night from day runs directly through the north pole (the rotation axis) so day and night are the same length. the north pole points away from the sun at the winter solstice and toward it at the summer solstice. as it orbits earth, our view of the moon changes. during the phases when the moon is visible to us, it appears to move across our sky in one night. earth’s rotation causes this, not the moon’s orbit. the moon does not give off any light of its own; we see sunlight reflecting off its surface. the moon orbits earth every 29.5 days. when the moon is between earth and sun, we cannot see any sunlit part of it. this is called a new moon. as the moon moves along its orbit, more of its surface becomes visible to us; this is called the waxing phase. when earth is between the moon and the sun, we see a whole side of the moon completely sunlit, or the full moon. as the moon moves toward the sun, less of its surface becomes visible; this is the waning phase. see figure 1 on the next page. scale, proportion, and quantity: count the number of rays each hemisphere receives in the model on page 186. by this measure, how many times more sunlight does the southern hemisphere receive than the northern hemisphere? patterns: how does the earth’s distance from the sun affect the seasons?

Explanation:

Step1: Count rays for each hemisphere

Since the reference to page 186 is not provided, assume we have counted the rays for the Northern Hemisphere ($N$) and Southern Hemisphere ($S$) in the model.

Step2: Calculate the ratio

To find how many times more sunlight the Southern Hemisphere receives than the Northern Hemisphere, we calculate the ratio $\frac{S}{N}$.

The Earth's distance from the Sun has a minor effect on seasons. The tilt of the Earth's axis (about 23.5 degrees) is the main factor. When a hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun, it has summer. The Earth is actually closest to the Sun (perihelion) in early January and farthest (aphelion) in early July, which is opposite to the Northern Hemisphere's summer - winter pattern. So, the change in distance does not cause seasons, but it can slightly affect the intensity of seasons.

Answer:

Without the actual count of rays for each hemisphere from page 186, we cannot give a numerical answer. But the method to find the answer is to calculate the ratio of the number of rays received by the Southern Hemisphere to the number of rays received by the Northern Hemisphere.

For the second - part question "How does the Earth’s distance from the Sun affect the seasons?":