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Why is tropic of cancer called tropic of cancer?

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i'm nine it's for school help me out

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  1. it has to do with the astrological sign.


  2. its a crab  

  3. Columbia Encyclopedia: Tropic of Cancer,

    parallel of latitude at 23°30′ north of the equator; it is the northern boundary of the tropics. This parallel marks the farthest point north at which the sun can be seen directly overhead at noon; north of the parallel the sun appears less than 90° from the southern horizon at any day of the year. The sun reaches its vertical position over the Tropic of Cancer at about June 22, the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. When the Tropic of Cancer was named, the sun was in the constellation Cancer at the time of the summer solstice.

    The line is called Tropic of Cancer because when it was named the sun was in the location of the constellation of Cancer (Latin for crab) in the sky at the June solstice. However, due to the precession of the equinoxes, the sun is now in the location of the constellation of Taurus at the June solstice. The word "tropic" itself comes from the Greek tropos, meaning turn, referring to the fact that the sun appears to "turn back" at the solstices.

    http://www.answers.com/tropic%20of%20can...

    http://www.bartleby.com/65/tr/TropCan.ht...

    The sun reaches this apparent position at noon on or about June 22 of each year; at this time it appears at its highest point in the sky as seen from the northern hemisphere, and at its lowest point as seen from the southern hemisphere. This date marks the start of summer for the northern hemisphere and is therefore called the summer solstice. In the southern hemisphere, however, the seasons are reversed; this date marks the start of winter in the southern hemisphere, and it is known there as the winter solstice. For the next six months the sun at noon appears lower each day in the northern hemisphere and higher each day in the southern hemisphere.

    Cancer is the Latin word for crab, and is the name of one of the 12 sectors that ancient astrologers marked off in the zodiac, the band of sky from 8° north to 8° south of the equator. In the 2nd century bc Greek astronomer Hipparchus observed that the sun appeared to be within the boundaries of Cancer at the time of the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere.

    http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/R...

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