Eldon Costa, age 22, of Visalia, California, for his question:

Would we have seasons if the earth were straight?

The earth's axis, we are told, is tilted to its orbit. Its orbit is, of courses its path around  the sun. Its axis, around which it spins, is an imaginary line  straight through the middle from pole to pole, And this axis is tilted  to the orbit, It is this fact which causes the  seasons.

 If the axis were not tilted, it would be at right angles to the orbit. It would waltz around the; sun, straight, as it were. The sun shines on half of the world at a time, while the other half is in the shadows of night, If the earth were straight, the half would cut clear through the poles all the time. Every spot on earth would have a twelve hour day every day of the year. There would be no long arctic night, no polar midnight sun.

The seasons would go unnoticed. For every spot on the earth would get the same amount of sunshine year in and year out. If the earth were not tilted, there would be no changing seasons.