Question

low - latitude locations usually have warmer climates than high - latitude locations. this happens because latitude affects the intensity of sunlight an area receives. because earth is round, sunlight strikes different parts of earth at different angles. incoming sunlight is most intense when it strikes earth directly, at a 90° angle. in the first diagram, the yellow arrows represent some of the sunlight that strikes earth at a low - latitude location, near the equator. the circled section represents the area of earths surface that this sunlight reaches. the second diagram uses yellow arrows to show the same amount of sunlight striking earth at a high - latitude location, near the north pole. notice that in this diagram, the sunlight strikes earth at a smaller angle and spreads over a much larger area of earths surface than the sunlight striking a low - latitude location. as a result, this part of earth receives sunlight that is much less intense. use the diagrams to complete the statements. sunlight reaching a high - latitude location spreads out over a ____ area than the same amount of sunlight reaching a low - latitude location. compared to a low - latitude location, the sunlight reaching a high - latitude location is ____ intense. smaller... less larger... less larger... more smaller... more

Explanation:

The text and diagrams clearly state that sunlight at high - latitude locations spreads over a larger area. And since the same amount of sunlight is spread over a larger area, the intensity is less (as intensity is related to how concentrated the sunlight is). For example, if you have a fixed amount of light energy (\(E\)) and it covers an area \(A\), the intensity \(I=\frac{E}{A}\). As \(A\) (area) increases (for high - latitude), \(I\) (intensity) decreases.

Answer:

larger... less