Slightly to the side

Did you know that Earth's tilt affects the school year?

We might refer to Planet Earth as ‘the globe’, but we know it is more like a slightly flattened sphere —experts would say it’s an oblate spheroid— that is also askew. These two details have major consequences for the climate, the night sky, the way we register locations, and even the way schools plan their academic year. How much does the Earth's being at an angle affect us? Let’s find out!

Why is Earth’s axis tilted? The most widely accepted theory is that, millions of years ago, a young planet Earth collided with another celestial body and was left permanently askew. Earth’s axis, supposedly straight before, now has a tilt of 23.5 degrees. It is also believed that the Moon is a product of this collision.

The Earth is permanently tilted, but it’s not static. The degree of the tilt varies slightly across a cycle of thousands of years, which would explain why seasons were harsher or milder across history. But what keeps the Earth from having a more extreme shift? The Moon. All celestial bodies have their own gravity, and they can affect each other. Moon’s gravity has a pull on the equatorial bulge (Earth’s widest part) and prevents it from being affected by other surrounding planets, while also keeping the axial tilt stable.

The different seasons are the first major consequence of the axial tilt. As the Earth orbits around the Sun, it remains tilted in the same direction, which means that, for half of the orbit, one pole is directly facing the Sun, while the other is directly away. For the next half of the orbit, the positions are reversed. The pole closer to the Sun experiences Summer, while the opposite pole goes through Winter (which means that yes, the Southern hemisphere celebrates Christmas during Summer).

When a compass signals North, what is it pointing towards? Spoiler: not the North Pole. The North Pole (also known as True North, or Geographic North) it is a fixed point in the Arctic Ocean intersected by the rotational axis. Maps and coordinates use this point as a reference for the North. A compass, however, points towards the North of the Earth’s magnetic field, which is constantly shifting. The difference between the two Norths is called declination, and is essential for navigation and map reading.

The Earth is a sphere, but most maps are flat. Something is not adding up, and it’s all the fault of a man called Gerardus Mercator, who, in the 16th century, mapped the Earth in a way that represented the meridians and parallels as straight lines. While this was excellent for navigation, it had its negatives: a size distortion. The farthest land masses are from the equator and closest to the poles, the most inflated in size they appear. For example, in the Mercator projection, Greenland appears close in size to the entire African continent, when in reality it is closer in size to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

We all know the difference between the Northern and the Southern hemispheres, but did you know the difference between the Eastern and Western ones? Unlike North and South (which are divided by the equator and experience opposite seasons), the Eastern and Western hemispheres are more of a cultural division, even though they are separated by the Prime meridian and antimeridian. The Eastern Hemisphere is commonly associated with "the Old World" (though it includes Australia), and the Western Hemisphere is "the New World".

Hemispheres split the world equally in size, but not in content. The Northern Hemisphere contains the majority of the Earth’s land mass (around 68%), while the Southern Hemisphere holds the majority of the water (around 80%). As the Northern side has more land, it also houses the majority of the world’s population, around 90%.

North and South experience opposite seasons, but what else is opposite? Storms and whirlpools spin depending on their location—clockwise in the South, counterclockwise in the North—, and the shape of the crescent moon is perceived inverted —a waxing crescent looks like a D from the North and a C from the South.

While bigger celestial objects, such as the Sun or Moon, are visible from any point on Earth, some can only be seen depending on your location. Constellations that are located closer to the Poles are only visible from that hemisphere, and have traditionally been used for navigation and orientation. In the Northern hemisphere, the main examples are Polaris (the north star), Ursa Major (a constellation that contains the Big Dipper), Ursa Minor, Cepheus, and Cassiopeia. For the Southern Hemisphere, the main examples are Crux (the Southern Cross), Centaurus, and Carina.

Most institutions plan their year around Summer, which means that in the Northern Hemisphere, the Academic year usually starts around September and ends in May or June of the following calendar year, while there’s a Winter break in time for Christmas and New Year. In the Southern Hemisphere, the calendar and academic years are matched: the academic year usually begins in March and ends mid-December, right before the Holidays, while Winter break usually falls in July.

Some names stick around

From Table Tap Joe to Ziggy Stardust: Who are the best song characters?

Sometimes, a character is the perfect alter-ego to write a song about oneself without self-referencing so much. Other times, a character is just a character. Over the years, musicians have come up with lonely dreamers, fearless heroes, mysterious strangers, and even supernatural villains who have become just as famous as the songs themselves. Some were inspired by real people, others sprang entirely from imagination, but all of them left a lasting mark on music history. Which of these 12 do you remember?

Tom Waits has always had a soft spot for society's oddballs, and few are even stranger than Table Top Joe. Introduced on the 2002 album Alice, Joe is born with only a head and hands, yet grows into a brilliant piano player whose extraordinary talent earns him fame despite the odds stacked against him.

The song unfolds like a forgotten American folk tale, complete with references to Coney Island's legendary Dreamland amusement park and composer Igor Stravinsky. Although many listeners assume the story is based on an old carnival legend, Table Top Joe is entirely Tom Waits' own creation.

Few fictional musicians have ever become as famous as Ziggy Stardust. Introduced in 1972, Ziggy is an alien rock star sent to Earth shortly before humanity's end, only to be consumed by the very fame that makes him a savior to millions.

David Bowie blurred the line between fiction and reality by performing as Ziggy onstage for more than a year. When he unexpectedly announced Ziggy's retirement during a concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon in 1973, many fans believed the character, and perhaps Bowie himself, had truly reached the end of the story.

Tommy Walker isn't just the hero of a song, he's the central figure of one of rock music's first great operas. After witnessing a traumatic event as a child, Tommy becomes deaf, mute, and blind, yet somehow develops astonishing pinball skills that transform him into an unlikely celebrity.

Pete Townshend built an entire musical world around Tommy, exploring themes of trauma, faith, and redemption. First released in 1969, Tommy later became a hit film, a Broadway production, and one of the most influential concept albums ever recorded.

Johnny B. Goode is every aspiring musician's dream. Growing up in rural Louisiana with little more than a guitar and natural talent, he plays so brilliantly that listeners predict "his name will be in lights."

Chuck Berry based the character partly on himself and partly on pianist Johnnie Johnson. Originally described as a "colored boy," Johnny became a "country boy" in the final lyrics, making the song more likely to receive airplay during the segregation era. Nearly two decades later, Johnny's anthem would even travel into space aboard NASA's Voyager Golden Record.

Few fictional characters have captured loneliness as powerfully as Eleanor Rigby. She quietly moves through life unnoticed, while Father McKenzie delivers sermons that no one hears, creating one of popular music's saddest portraits of isolation.

Paul McCartney later explained that Eleanor's name came from actress Eleanor Bron and the Liverpool shop Rigby & Evens. The discovery of an actual Eleanor Rigby gravestone in Liverpool only deepened the song's mystique, though McCartney maintained the coincidence was unintentional.

Billie Jean may be one of pop music's most famous women, yet Michael Jackson insisted she wasn't a real person. Instead, she represented several women who falsely claimed that he had fathered their children during the height of the Jackson 5's fame.

Released in 1983 as part of Thriller, the song became a global phenomenon. It also provided the stage for Jackson's legendary moonwalk during Motown 25.

Unlike many legendary song characters, Stagger Lee actually existed. His real name was Lee Shelton, a St. Louis criminal who murdered Billy Lyons during an argument over a hat on Christmas Eve in 1895.

The shocking crime quickly entered American folklore through countless folk songs before Lloyd Price transformed it into a chart-topping hit in 1958. More than a century later, Stagger Lee remains one of the most enduring antiheroes in American music.

Tom Dooley was inspired by Thomas Dula, a Confederate veteran executed in North Carolina in 1868 after being convicted of murdering Laura Foster. His surname was locally pronounced "Dooley," giving the ballad its familiar title.

The Kingston Trio revived the old Appalachian folk song in 1958, turning it into an international hit and helping launch America's folk music revival.

When the narrator of "Lola" meets an intriguing stranger in a Soho nightclub, expectations quickly give way to surprise. Ray Davies crafted one of rock's earliest mainstream stories exploring gender ambiguity, decades before the topic entered popular conversation.

The recording rarely reached British radio. Because BBC rules prohibited commercial product names, Davies had to interrupt a U.S. tour and fly back to London simply to replace the lyric "Coca-Cola" with the now-famous "cherry cola."

Unlike most famous song characters, the Piano Man is really Billy Joel himself. Before becoming a superstar, Joel spent six months in 1972 and 1973 performing under the pseudonym Bill Martin at the Executive Room, a piano bar in Los Angeles, after becoming trapped in a bad recording contract. The song transforms those experiences into a bittersweet portrait of ordinary people searching for escape at the end of another week.

Joel has said that virtually every character in the song was based on a real person, from bartender John to "Paul, the real estate novelist" and Davy, who really was in the Navy. Yet the Piano Man himself became the story's most enduring character: a quiet observer who offers music as a brief refuge for dreamers, lonely souls, and regulars alike. More than fifty years after its 1973 release, "Piano Man" remains Billy Joel's signature song, and its title has effectively become his lifelong nickname.

Standing nearly seven feet tall and missing an arm, Amos Moses roams the Louisiana swamps hunting alligators. Jerry Reed filled the song with colorful Southern expressions and exaggerated storytelling that make Amos feel like an authentic folk legend.

Although fictional, Amos embodies the larger-than-life heroes found throughout American tall tales. His adventures turned the song into one of Reed's biggest crossover hits and secured Amos a permanent place among country music's greatest characters.

Big Bad John hardly says a word, but he doesn't have to. The towering coal miner earns everyone's respect through quiet strength before sacrificing his own life to save fellow workers when a mine collapses.

Jimmy Dean's 1961 ballad became a smash hit, winning a Grammy and inspiring several sequel songs. More than sixty years later, Big Bad John still stands as one of country music's defining working-class heroes.