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The Question & Answer (Q&A) Knowledge Managenet
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Sunrise is defined as the moment the top of the sun’s disc first breaks the plane of the horizon in the morning, and sunset is when the top of the sun’s disc sinks below the horizon in the evening.
The sun appears to rise on the eastern horizon and sets on the western horizon.
Follow Us: Once the sun touches the horizon, it takes approximately 2 to 3 minutes to go below the horizon. This is dependent on several factors, including latitude, time of year and atmospheric thickness. As the earth rotates, the sun appears to travel across the sky at a rate of 1 degree per 5.6 minutes.
“Sunset” is the opposite. It occurs the moment the disc of sun completely disappears below the western horizon. Technically, “dusk” is the period of twilight between complete darkness and sunrise (or sunset). In common usage, “dawn” refers to morning, while “dusk” refers only to the evening twilight.
Just like the sunrise symbolizes the start of the day and a new beginning, sunset symbolism indicates the completion of a cycle and an end to the proceedings. It’s commonly present together with the sunrise symbolism because they form an entity, a cycle.
The time taken by the Sun to fully set depends on various factors such as the thickness of the atmosphere, time of the year, and latitude. The Sun takes approximately 150 to 200 seconds (2 to 3 minutes) to fully go below the horizon (once it has already touched the horizon).
A lover of sunsets is called an ‘opacarophile’. To understand its roots, the word opacarophile can be broken down into two parts: ‘opacare’ which is Latin for dusk or sunset, and ‘phile’ which is Greek for love.
The answer is that the degree of the sun’s movement along the horizon depends on two things: 1) the time of year 2) your latitude The sun’s movement along your horizon – at sunrise or sunset – is most perceptible around the equinoxes and least perceptible around the solstices.
Suppose sunrise was instead defined as the time at which the entire Sun first appears above the horizon and sunset was instead defined as the time at which the first bit of the Sun drops below the horizon. Even with these extreme definitions, daytime would still last longer than nighttime on the equinoxes thanks to atmospheric refraction.
The sun’s movement along your horizon – at sunrise or sunset – is most perceptible around the equinoxes and least perceptible around the solstices. Also, the sun’s daily change of position along the horizon is greater the farther north or south you are from Earth’s equator.
The spinning Earth lit by the Sun as seen from far above the North Pole. All along the terminator, the rays from the sun hit Earth horizontally, neglecting any atmospheric effects and Earth’s orbital motion. Sunset in Paris from Tour Montparnasse in 2019.