Moving into daytime
Imagine that you have awakened very, very early. You look out of a
window. The sky is still black, and the whole world seems dark and
silent.
But as you watch for a long time, the sky slowly turns from black to
gray. You can begin to see things. The sky grows lighter. A pink glow
spreads across the eastern horizon. Suddenly, you can see the tiniest
tip of fiery red peeping over the edge of the land. The sun. Slowly,
more and more of it becomes visible as it rises up into the sky.
This is the time of day that is called sunrise. But the sun doesn’t
really rise. It just looks as if it is moving up into the sky. What is
really happening is that the part of the world you live on is turning
toward the sun.
Half of the earth is always covered with light from the sun. The other
half is always in darkness, for no sunlight can fall upon it. But the
earth is always turning. As it turns, everything on it moves from
darkness into sunlight, again and again. This is our night and day.
When it is morning for you, your part of the world is turning out of the
darkness into the light. At sunrise, you are just on the edge of that
half of the world that is in sunlight.
As the earth continues to turn, more and more sunlight falls upon the
part of the world where you live. The sky grows brighter, and the sun
seems to rise higher. But the sun isn’t really moving. You are moving
beneath it. When your part of the world has moved directly into line
with the sun, the sun seems to be at its highest place in the sky. This
is the time of day we call noon. The light is strongest then. Shadows
are shortest.
As the earth keeps turning, your part of the world moves away from the
sun. This makes it seem as
if the sun is moving down in the sky. Shadows grow longer.
The earth turns until your part of it is once again on the very edge of
the half that is in the sunlight. Now it is evening. The sky is
darkening as you leave the light behind. This is the time we call
sunset, because the sun looks as if it is dropping down behind the curve
of the earth. Slowly, the part of the world where you live slips
completely out of the sunlight. Now, you are turning toward the darkness
of space.
It is night in your part of the world. You’re getting ready for bed.
But, halfway around the world from you, other children are waking up.
Their part of the world has turned to where your part was this morning.
For them, the day has begun.
