!"# %&''() *+ !,)'() -",. !*.

-()/
0+ -"( ,.+1() 12)-" 3.21*.4/
ueoige Philanuei
2S 0ctobei 2u14.

Why is summer warmer than winter? When twenty-three Harvard University students,
faculty members and alumni, all elegantly attired in colorful caps and gowns, were asked
this question on a sunny graduation day in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1986, all but two
gave the wrong answer. The video that shows their responses has caused dismay --see
Harvard, a Private Universe on YouTube -- but the students seem unconcerned when
told that their answers are wrong. One points out that she had gotten far without having
any scientific background whatsoever. Hers is a valid point. Ignorance of the reasons for
the seasons is not a handicap when trying to cope with the changes in the seasons. All we
need is an accurate calendar. In general, scientific illiteracy is not a serious drawback
when using the products of science calendars, cell phones, computers etc. Why the
concern about scientific illiteracy? Will the concern disappear if all the Harvard students
give the correct answer? The right answer is so dull and uninteresting -- the Earths axis
of rotation tilts towards the sun in summer, away from the sun in winter -- that, after
being told what it is, few remember it. Is the memorization of tedious facts really
important?

The iiony of the Baivaiu viueo is that it uiaws attention to how pooily science is
taught by asking a question that exemplifies a seiious pioblem with the teaching of
science. That question, conceining the ieason foi the seasons, ieinfoices the
unfoitunate misconception that science is a uiy-as-uust list of facts anu theoiies
ielevant to uiffeient natuial phenomena. In ieality science is a continual inteiplay
between obseivations anu theoiies, an inteiplay in which the wrong explanation for
an observation, rather than an embarrassment, is merely a hypothesis that has to be tested.
The observation that summer is warm, winter cold, prompts the obvious theory that the
changing trajectory of the Sun across the sky causes the seasons, but what causes the
trajectory to change? The ancient Greeks thought that the Earth is at the center of the
universe, and that the Sun orbits the Earth. The Harvard students are aware that planet
Earth orbits the Sun, know that the orbit is an ellipse, not a circle, and propose that the
Earth is closer to the Sun in summer than winter. The next step is to test this explanation
for the seasons, by exploring implications of the theory.

The theory implies that summer occurs at the same time of the year everywhere on the
planet. Observations indicate that summer in one hemisphere, coincides with winter in
the other. When the Earth is furthest from the Sun, in June, it is summer in Boston, but
winter in Buenos Aires. This inconsistency means that the theory needs to be improved.

Could it be that, in addition to having an eccentric orbit, the Earths axis of rotation is
tilted rather than vertical so that, at any time, one hemisphere is favored with more
sunlight than the other? Although this new theory is in accord with the observations, we
once again are obliged to test its implications, for example the implication that the
seasonal cycle should have a huge amplitude in polar regions, a far smaller one in the
tropics. Seasonal temperature fluctuations satisfy this condition, but rainfall is another
story. The rainy season is summer in low latitudes in Pretoria and New Delhi for
example and is winter in Cape Town and Los Angeles. Further poleward, in places
such as Boston and London, there is no rainy season because it rains throughout the year.
This aspect of the seasonal cycle depends on winds that harvest moisture over the oceans
and carry it in fantastically-shaped granaries clouds bringing rain to some regions
and withholding it from others. We next have to explore the atmospheric circulation, the
oceanic circulation, their interactions that produce El Nino etc

Science is such an engaging, unenuing inteiplay between obseivations anu theoiies
that it piompteu Alexanuei Pope to wiite that

A little leaining is a uangeious thing
uiink ueep, oi taste not the Pieiian spiing:
theie shallow uiaughts intoxicate the biain,
anu uiinking laigely sobeis us again
"# $%%&' (# )*+,+-+%./ "012&#31* 4(51 67899 :7;<<=

Pope is not uefenuing ignoiance but is pioposing that the uangeis of a little
leaining - being too hasty in uiawing conclusions fiom limiteu infoimation -- can
be oveicome by leaining moie. The familiai, ieliable, accessible seasons aie iueal
vehicles foi leaining about science in geneial because they still pose challenging
puzzles. (Bow is it possible foi the seasonal cycle in iainfall to vaiy significantly
fiom iegion to iegion, as mentioneu above, but to be piactically absent fiom
globally aveiageu iainfall. This suggests that uiffeient iegions communicate with
each othei. Bow.) Ignoiance of the ieason foi the seasons is not cause foi uespaii
oi embaiiassment, but is an oppoitunity foi a "uangeious" life-long affaii with
science.