Can someone give me a SIMPLE difference between equinox and solstice?

Question

So I have been looking around the internet but all I can find is long and confusing paragraphs about the differences between equinox and solstice. If anyone has a one or two sentence simple answer, please help me out!

I really appreciate it! Thanks a bunch!

Answer 1

because of the the tilt of the Earth's axis the Sun's position in the sky appears to move between the tropic of Cancer ( northern hemisphere )and the tropic of capricorn ( southern hemisphere ). The day when it is at the most northern point ( on the tropic of Cancer ) is the longest day in the northern hemi & shortest in the southern hemi & the reverse applies when it is on the tropic of Capricorn. When it crosses the Equator ( twice yearly) those days are called the equinox's because it is shining equally on both hemis.

Answer 2

Solstice vs. Equinox.  Solstice refers to the two times each year when the sun's strongest rays are furthest from the equator.  For the northern hemisphere, summer solstice occurs around June 21st and winter solstice around December 21st.  Equinox refers to the two times each year when the sun's strongest rays are directly hitting the equator.  

Answer 3

well if your talking about science then a

solstice is in the summer and winter when the the day is separated by 16 hours of day and 8 of night or visa versa

an equinox is in spring or fall when day and night are both 12 hours

or mabye ur talking about the cars?

Answer 4

Solstice: the earth's axis is titled as far as it will go

Equinox: the earth isn't tilted; the equator is parallel with the earth's orbit.

Answer 5

Equinox is when the day and night are of equal length.

Solstice is when the day and the night are most unequal in length.

Answer 6

Sorry but Geezah's answer didn't ring true to me...the others are right, but pretty confusing also.  When something doesn't make sense, learn about the etymology of the word.

"Solstice" for example..."Sol" just refers to the sun, the Greeks called it "Sol" and we often refer to it as "Old Sol"...the second half, "...stice" is related to "stasis", a word used in medicine to refer to blood or other fluid not moving.  A doctor will say "The patient's blood is in stasis."

OK, so solstice is "Sun...not moving".  This happens twice a year as the sun seems to rise and set more and more to the north in the summer, (or south in the winter), finally "standing still" and reversing it's motion as the seasons move forward.  

The solstice is when the sun reaches an end point in its' travel at the height of summer and the dead of winter.  

Equinox comes from "Equi" (equal) "nox"(night)...the night is equal to the day (in length) when the sun is halfway between the solstices.

Answer 7

I think the best way to understand it is to use a globe.  If you don't have one, imagine one.

Picture a room with a bright light at the center.  That will be the sun.  Now we take a globe and walk it in a big circle around the light.  One full circle represents a year.  We keep the angle of the globe the same all the way around. The polar axis of a globe is tilted about 23 degrees, just like the earth is.

Now picture a point in the circle where the north pole is angled the farthest away from the sun.  That's the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere.  On the opposite side of the room, the north pole will be pointed most *toward* the sun.  That would be the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere.

Now picture the two points which are halfway between those.  They are the equinoxes.  Here, the sun is shining directly down on the equator.  You would notice that the shadow on the night side of the earth goes right through the poles.  If you spin the globe, you can see how on every point on the earth, the day is the same length of time as the night.

I know this was more than a couple of sentences but I hope it helped.

Answer 8

the summer  and winter  solstice are  the longest and shortest days days of the year  the spring and fall equinox  are when  there is 12 hours  of daylight and 12 hours of dark daylight and  dark are equal;; equinox