Getting a sun tan, in different countries.?

Question

I was just wondering, how comes if it was to be 30c here in England for a week and all sun we'd get quite tanned, but then go down to the Canary Islands for a week with 25c all sun and you'd come back very very tanned!

Why's this?

Answer 1

In the simplest terms possible , we are exposed to a low level of light at our latitudes because the sunlight has to penetrate our atmosphere at an angle, and travels through a longer distance, of atmosphere than at latitudes on or near the equator, where it is directly overhead, and has a shorter distance to go, through the atmosphere to get to you, and cause tanning, it is called "attenuation",  this weakening of the effect of the suns power, due to atmospheric losses, because of distance travelled...

The principle is the same as that of a tanks armour, and the passage of a shell through it, if a shell is fired at the tank and the armour is upright, then the distance through the armour is the shortest distance through the metal, but lean it backwards and the distance the shell has to go through increases because the metal is thicker if it is angled thus slowing the shell down , by sufficient to make penetration harder, plus the risk of a ricochet increases, try it with a shoe box and draw the shells path, level with the ground, and then tilt the box, backwards and draw a second line, level with the ground, and then measure the lengths, you will also be able to see the differing paths of the suns rays, and understand this loss of energy , much better....

Answer 2

insane_m is right. The reason there are more UV  rays getting to you in the Canary Islands is that they are closer to the equator and therefore closer to the sun - the source of the UV rays

Answer 3

tanning is a result of UV exposure not heat. the light shining in the canaries is "different" than the light shining on england; because the earth is round, you are getting exposed to more photons per m^2 around the equator since the light shining on there is "dead on" versus "at an angle" at higher lattitudes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Obliq...

Answer 4

more UV rays getting onto your skin there.

Answer 5

Simply because getting a tan has nothing to do with air temperature. You could get a tan in freezing temperatures, with snow all around you.

It's exposure to the sun's rays that gives you a tan, and in the Canaries you get more exposure than in the UK.