THE TROPICS OF CANCER AND CAPRICORN

THE TROPICS OF CANCER AND CAPRICORN

Here's a mnemonic device to help distinguish between the two global geographical regions:

" Ca-N-cer lies North of the Equator
and Capric-O-rn lies Opposite (South). "

The Tropic of Cancer is a line of latitude (running parallel with the equator) indicating the extreme northern positions (around the globe) at which the sun appears directly overhead at noon. The sun only reaches this position once a year, at the Summer Solstice of the Northern Hemisphere.

The Tropic of Capricorn is the parallel latitude indicating the extreme southern global positions at which the sun appears directly overhead at noon. again, the sun only reaches this position once a year, at the Summer Solstice of the Southern Hemisphere (ie. the Northern Winter Solstice).

For their degrees of latitude:

" Ca-n-cer = letters 2 +(n halfway=½°N) +3 letters = 23½°N
while Capric-o-rn (being opposite) is 23½°S. "

The Tropic of Cancer passes (W-E) through the Sahara, the Bahamas, Mexico, southern China, India, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The Tropic of Capricorn passes through Namibia, Brazil, Chile, Australia, Madagascar and Mozambique.

Both latitudes take their names from the Zodiac of stellar constellations set along the ecliptic (the path followed by the sun and planets through the celestial sphere in course of a year). Cancer and Capricorn lie opposite each other on the ecliptic 6 months apart in the cycle (mid-June/July and mid-Dec./Jan.), and when the Sun was at its highest point in the N. Hemisphere it was (historically) in the region of Cancer (although nowadays at such times the Sun is actually in the next constellation, and leaving Gemini for Taurus).

The Tropics usually refers to the whole pan-equatorial region lying between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. For obvious climactic reasons (the sun always being high in the sky and directky overhead twice a year) it is sometimes called the Torrid Zone!