Seasonbuilding 101: Axial Tilt

[@wesselstienstra7020]

Absolutely fascinating stuff. Especially the switched pole-equator positions are very interesting. You'd have two habitable zones with this barren, icy belt in between. It would take ages for peoples to finally get the technology to pass the polar belt and get their minds blown by the fact that people live on the other side

[@Artifexian]

+Wessel Stienstra Yup! Probably the most interesting thing about "switched" planets imo. Good observation. *tips fedora

[@ClaudiaCarranza1]

+Artifexian duuuuude! mind blown!

[@Artifexian]

+Claudia Carranza He's not just a handsome, pink starfish. He's an erudite, handsome, pink starfish! :D

[@Amozmusicmaker]

+Wessel Stienstra Except there won't be people living on the other side because these two zones are completely isolated from each other and follow a very different path in evolution. It would be plausible another intelligent species evolved there though, and it would be like discovering alien life on your own planet.

[@Cythil]

+Amozmusicmaker Depends. Maybe the equatorial ice barrier have been more hospitable in the past with a warmer period. Just like the ice sheets on Earths poles comes and goes. There might have been a time where there was a great migration between the regions. Then they got separated during a ice age.

[@Heligoland360]

4:57 I know this a very old video, but you're slightly wrong here. First, I think you meant 45 degrees not 54 degrees Second, the poles and equator wouldn't switch, instead they would overlap, meaning that between the bands there would be at least one day of total light and total dark and 1-2 days where the Sun is directly overhead (the 1-2 depends on whether it is on the tropic or within it). By the time you get to 90 degrees tilt the tropics would be a point on the poles and the arctic circle would be on the equator making everywhere within the tropic ands arctic at once which, if you think about it, makes perfect sense.

[@TheJklgamer]

You must have really enjoyed making this video if it allowed you to say "literally hell freezes over". Best quote from you yet.

[@Artifexian]

+TheJklgamer Haha super! I always enjoy making the videos...it's a super fun hobby to have and it's awesome chatting with you good people after the video goes live.

[@rawandhwayyiz4302]

@@Artifexian boy how time has changed :)

[@PhantomKING113]

44° = Ecuator is hot, polar zones cold. 46° = Polar zones are hot, ecuator cold. 45° = ???

[@Ggdivhjkjl]

Exactly, why do they switch at 54°? Shouldn't they switch at 45° seeing that's half of 90°? It would seem to me as though at 45° the whole planet would be evenly lukewarm on average.

[@thesilverhornet-9423]

It’s because if you minus 54 from 90 you get 46 which is more than half

[@Anistuffs]

@@thesilverhornet-9423 No. 90 - 54 = 36, not 46.

[@noahgreer1497]

Maybe its one big temperate zone with relatively drastic seasons?

[@lordman5497]

Tropics and polar circles coincide

[@HungryMusicologist]

The temperatures of the poles and equator might switch at 54°, but that has nothing with the polar circles and tropics switching place. And they don't really switch place either, but rather overlap when you have axial tilt above 45°. So with a 60° axial tilt when you are between 30 and 60° north or south you will be within the tropics and the polar circles at the same time. You will experience both midnight sun and the sun being directly overhead at least one day a year.

[@QuotePilgrim]

"Axilt tilt"

[@emilyholland1761]

Yard Sard

[@KlaxontheImpailr]

Err my gerrd

[@ynntari2775]

Axilotl Tilt

[@GamingMeatBag]

I might have gotten this wrong, but it seems to me that the exchanged tropics and poles do not mean jungle in the poles and a frozen belt in the center. The Tropics further out and the poles so close to the equator means extreme seasons in the poles, and more forgiving seasons in the center. The sun would hit the equator directly still twice in the equinoxes, and for a bout half a year would be around that area.

[@5amisntlate]

WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME? creating a language is one thing and now you have me nerding out about the tilt of my planet?!?! this is going to be a very well thought out world... i just hope the plot works lol

[@GasNobili]

7 years later, how did things go?

[@5amisntlate]

@GasNobili not good unfortunately. My mental health took an extreme tank and my writing fell apart. I still want it to exist one day, but the who I am today is barely capable of function.

[@rydude998]

This is easily one of the most underrated channels on KZbin, also one of me deep favorites. Please keep up the amazing work!

[@Artifexian]

+rydude998 Will do! Thanks for your kind words. Means a lot. :)

[@magiv4205]

"When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east, when the rivers run dry and the mountains blow in the wind like leaves..."

[@wanderingrandomer]

Khal Drogo is clearly hiding on Venus.

[@daviddezeeuw9031]

"hell literally and periodically, freezes over" why did I laugh so hard at this???? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@kinglikesdinner]

You might be wrong on your point about the poles and equator switching at 54 degrees. While the two regions may *overlap*, they most definitely won't *switch places*.

[@Ggdivhjkjl]

He means that the environmental effects would be reversed. But why would they switch at 54° anyway? Shouldn't they switch at 45° seeing that's half of 90°?

[@ragnkja]

Ggdivhjkjl But the poles will still have polar night and midnight sun, so rather than being “tropical” (stable hot climate), they’ll have extreme seasonal variations. For an example that’s about as extreme as it can get, look at Uranus.

[@tamasjenovari2248]

I can confirm that, the equator and surroundings will be the only places on the planet, where there wont be sunless day, or nonstop-sun day either. Really great vid tho, thanks to you, i started to really dig deep into 60° tilted planets and will design my world that way :)

[@digaddog6099]

@@Ggdivhjkjl theres a paper called "A SIMPLE FORMULA FOR A PLANET’S MEAN ANNUAL INSOLATION BY LATITUDE" which apparently explains it

[@milobem4458]

Sorry but the switching arctics & tropics is wrong. When your arctic circles get closer to the equator than the tropics you don't automatically switch the whole zones. polar regions are still arctic, and the equator is still the equator. Instead of familiar temperate zone the area between polar circle and the tropic is now BOTH arctic and tropical zone in one, which means in winter it gets midday darkness and midnight sun in summer, but also gets sun in the zenith once or twice a year. The climate of this planet will be quite messed up, but there will NOT be equatorial snowzone separating two "tropical caps".

[@saaros]

where do you get this info from though? how can you know this? :0

[@FreakigesSternchen]

Antichrist 5:30 just look at the projection, the south pole on this example is still turned away from the sun for a considerable amount of time, those are no conditions for tropics to arise

[@DracarmenWinterspring]

2:20 - do you mean 100-180? Thumbs up for a feasible ASOIAF season explanation! Also, are you going to talk about the speed of a planet's spin relative to its orbit? I find tidally locked planets (on one extreme edge of that scale) pretty interesting - I remember a sci-fi cartoon showing a planet like that having a thin band of habitable land (a 'twilight zone') between a half-planet that's permanently scorching and a half planet that's permanently frozen, and wondering how feasible that would be.

[@user-ft3jq5vi2l]

Considering the ridiculous amounts of wind that could ensue, climate would acttually be surprisingly varied. There would be very hot and wet land in the area directly under sunlight, followed by a broad band of deserts, then temperate and then finally cold (supposing it's in the mid-far habitable zone, too close and it would be the two sided stereotype). For wind patterns basically think of it as the rising hot air in the day side syphoning air from everywhere else.

[@ACoroa]

I understand why the tropics and polar circles would switch after a certain angle is reached in the tilt, but I'm not sure I agree with the climatic effects of that switch. For a large part of the year Antarctica would still remain in darkness, so it would not be a rainforest. It's seasons would just become more extreme. The part about the conditions in the Sahara is accurate.

[@pablobarbagelata2489]

+Geography's Right I dont think the conditions in the Sahara are accurate either. Since its in between the polar circles that would actually mean it would never have a pure-day or pure-night day, and also during autumn and spring it would be pretty much pointing to the sun, with to days a year directly under the sun. I guess this planet will not have ice caps at all, but very extreme seasons...

[@RoflZack]

This part didn't make sense to me either

[@parthiancapitalist2733]

Geospatial Bluff shouldn't it be after 45°?

[@ColinPaddock]

Ancient languages and history Yes.

[@Ggdivhjkjl]

@@parthiancapitalist2733, exactly. Why would they switch at 54°? Shouldn't they switch at 45° seeing that's half of 90°?

[@Stormingmonkey]

please please please do a video about a tidely locked planet! what kind of star it would orbit, where life could exist kind of temperatures on the hot and cold side distance from the star it would have to be all that fun stuff pleeeeaes!

[@KlaxontheImpailr]

I second that

[@starmax1000]

TheStormingmonkey I mean... A half permanent desert hellscape, the other half eternal darkness and in a small twilight ring between those two hells a small habitable zone... Good luck living there

[@haveiszalfaroqie1628]

It's actually a harsh planet to live at. In fact, Mercury is a tidally-locked planet.

[@Deathnotefan97]

Mercury isn't tidally locked, it's day is about 58 earth days, while it's year is about 88 earth days So there _is_ a day night cycle Fun fact: Based on it's orbit, rotation, and eccentricity, as Mercury approaches it's periapsis, the sun in the Mercurian sky would actually reverse it's direction for a time

[@limecyanizer4394]

@@haveiszalfaroqie1628 Mercury has a 3:2 spin-orbit resonance, so it is not tidally locked.

[@LichfiendRazool]

My mate showed me this channel & it's helping me a ton with my own worldbuilding. I love high fantasy stuff & making funky things but I like having things that also make sense, if they interact with the weird & magical, I want to be able to explain exactly what is happening.

[@LeNZian]

Aw yes, an episode on Game of Thrones seasons sounds good!

[@Artifexian]

+Smoates Super!

[@ParallelPenguins]

+Artifexian Yes I'd love to hear your take on the GOT seasons of weirdness!!

[@enkiimuto1041]

did he make one?

[@LeNZian]

No, not yet at least.

[@kompatybilijny9348]

Polar and Tropics do not switch. Poles will most likely freeze and melt periodically, as well as the equator. The equator will also experience two winters, when either pole is directed at the sun, and two summers in between those winters, when the planet is directed sideways to the star.

[@mitchellbrown5846]

I love your vids Artifexian! Could you do one about the viability of a binary planet system please? Could two Earth sized habitable planets orbit a common center of gravity?

[@QuakerStarGaming1912and2004]

+Mitch Brown That'd be very interesting. #support

[@Artifexian]

+Mitch Brown They absolutely could. A famous example from fiction would Caprica and Gemenon from Battlestar Galactica.

[@mitchellbrown5846]

+Artifexian Thank's for the reply! Keep up the good work!

[@Artifexian]

+Mitch Brown No probs. I try my best on upload night to get stuck in the comments as much as possible. The rule is if I don't reply, I'm scripting.

[@bensmith2951]

Also the sun can only be directly below in the tropics as well, the sun appears directly overhead (zenith) and directly below (nadir) twice a year in the tropics roughly at the opposite time of year of each other, this is because the sun always falls directly below at an antipode of where the sun is directly overhead, and antipodes give you the same latitude but opposite hemisphere but the longitude is 180 degrees around

[@wilfred8391]

I'd love to see you make a system in universe sandbox, it gives you all kinds of data but you'll be able to see so much and it looks stunning

[@Treviisolion]

This may also have already been talked about, but on a planet with a 90 degree axial tilt, the day night cycle would only correspond to the seasonal cycle at the poles. Elsewhere on the planet the day-night cycle would essentially go through an extreme version of what the poles go through where the closer to the poles the more days (as in rotations of the planet) that would be a single "day" (time where the sun is up). Near the equators the period of multiple day "days" would be shorter and most days would be more consistent with the rotations of the planet until you reach the equator where there would only be a few short days or less during which you'd have constant twilight and a maximum sun-lit period (not twilight) of half a day at the Equinoxes.

[@liampaiva5267]

The 0 or 180 degrees tilts could work for an Avatar the Last Airbender-like planet. It is said the four nations were based on the four seasons. So you have fire benders in the middle band, earth and air benders in the temperate bands and water benders in the polar bands. And, something like the swamp benders could certainly exist in tropical area within the fire-benders band.

[@Swamp_Hound]

god i absolutely love these videos, they are what makes my heart sing and my mind race. because honestly there are things ppl couldn't of imagined without actual scientists playing "what if" simulations and finding these things out

[@katebeemakes]

I absolutely love this video! I’ve been wanting to mess with the seasons in my story but haven’t figured out how to do it so it makes sense scientifically. This is just what I needed!

[@harry_page]

I'm reading the article on "Climate simulations in high obliquities" in the description and from what I can decipher, the polar and equatorial regions' climates switch roles at higher than 54 deg rather than 45 because of what it describes as a reorganisation of the global circulation, wherein the direction of winds are reversed, as are fronts of warm and cold air (on 23.5 deg Earth, warm air moves poleward. On 85 deg Earth, warm air instead moves equator-ward.) What I think it means is that the climates swap over not directly because of the way the planet receives sunlight but rather indirectly, because it changes the way air moves around the atmosphere. Also, high obliquity Earth would have huge temperature swings. While Africa and South America are sub-zero, most of North America, Europe and Asia gets roasted to 80 deg Celsius (176 deg Farenheit) every summer!

[@Xob_Driesestig]

Glad your back

[@ilikeceral3]

Can you do a simulation of the amount of sun a polar flipped Antarctica would get? Seems at if it would still be in darkness for half the year.

[@livedandletdie]

It wouldn't Take a look at the equator, if we now took earth and tilted it some more then the Antarctic region would get more light due to being closer to the orbit of Earth's processing around the sun. If we had a 45º tilt then Antarctica would still get sun for roughly 270º of the orbit until the rest of the planet blocks daylight. However it won't be half a year. It's technically not half a year currently either. However it also depends on the speed of rotation around Earths axis. A slower rotation may lead to longer winters in some places as the day night cycle is slower which causes temperature drops and spikes to vary more greatly depending on length.

[@Ggdivhjkjl]

@@livedandletdie, you sound smart mate. Why do the polar and equatorial climates switch at 54°? Shouldn't they switch at 45° seeing that's half of 90°?

[@NikolajLepka]

The flipping seasons thing blows my mind; I had no idea Thanks for the quality info as always! :D

[@Artifexian]

+Nikolaj Lepka Reality is hella trippy when you get down to it. No probs and thank you so much for watching!

[@phxJohn2010]

+Artifexian Great video! You did a superb job. One small detail though. Starting at 6:15 when you discuss 90 degree tilt. You said that "for half the year one half of the planet will be aimed directly at the star and the other directly away from the star." This isn't exactly accurate, though. If the southern hemisphere faced the star for 0.5 years, and then the northern hemisphere did for 0.5 years, then when would Spring and Fall occur? You've already accounted for 1 year. Mathematically, the Summer and Winter seasons account for 0.25 of the planet's year. The other half a year, the planet is in spring or fall and both sides are getting sun equally.

[@gadgetpatch9975]

Excellent vid as always, with a handy equation too. These have been a great starting point for different aspects of a generic star system sim I've got in the works. You should do astronomy consulting!

[@Artifexian]

+Solifuge Haha...I'm an enthusiastic amateur nothing more. Thanks for watching, buddy. Glad you enjoyed. Means a lot to have good folks like yourself watching me bang on about my niche little interests.

[@Tetracarbon]

I was linked to you channel by Xidnaf (spelling?) and I am so glad. I'm not so interested in the fiction but the science and implications of your constant "what if" scenarios are incredibly entertaining and educational. Great work. I hope my educational channel lives up to your level some day!

[@tonio103683]

Just a thought : The seasons in an Uranusian (a ~90° tilt) world could be defined more complicated I figure out in a con-worlding thought experiment : Yes, All the planet experiences tropical and polar features but some latitude experience some weird other things. In the Equator area for exemple, you never experience a total polar night or day. You just get a permanent sunset. Also, You can easily define mor than 4 seasons for a lot of the latitudes. If you look at it closely you can have up to 8 seasons ! For examples, in the lattitudes around 45° you obtain six seasons : A pre eternal day summer, then an eternal day, then a post ED summer, then a pre eternal night winter, then an eternal night then a post EN spring. You define those seasons with two factors : equinoxes and solstices and the fact that you have an eternal day/night, hence why you ends up with 6 seasons. In the Equatorial area, you have 2 times 4 seasons : two zenithal summers around the equinoxes, two twillight winters around the solstices and two springs and autumns in between.

[@Artifexian]

+tonio103683 This is very true but thinking in terms of number of seasons can be a slippery path to go down. I mean, if you ask an ecologist they'd tell you that Earth has 6 seasons: Prevernal, Vernal, Estival, Serotinal, Autumnal, Hibernal en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season#Modern_mid-latitude_ecological

[@tonio103683]

+Artifexian Yes, exactly, but I just put myself in the mind of how a potential civilization would divide seasons. On aplanet, different civilization will divide season in very different manners. The chinese, for example, divided the year between four seasons centered on the solstices and equinoxes and four inter-seasons. The egyptian divide the year in three seasons, so yeah, you're right that's slippery path, but I like to do "con-science".

[@josephforjoseph]

Bro, Im so glad Ive found your channel. I Love building worlds and the facinatingly EXTENSIVE detail that goes into planetary make and geology. And being such a visual person I love listening to your explinations and hard details on the subject juxtaposed with stunning visuals. Thank you for all that you do! 😋

[@Vincenturious]

I can't wait for you to reach the topics of geology. What I'm thinking about are plate tectonics, mountains, canyons, (highest and deepest, there's some cool physics about the limitations on them,) and maybe more exotically shaped planets. (Though that would be a bit more geometry mixed with geology and astonomy, but I happen to like all three.) Platonian solids or those shapes the fast spinning water droplets take would be the go to shapes should you decide to cover them, but that's just my opinion. I find the concept of odd shaped planets fascinating, and this interest is what caused me to find your content. Precisely, It was the doughnut shaped planet video that got me here, it was a pretty nice vid. I'm glad that I have found all these interesting content on this channel, and I'm really looking forward to new videos of this excellent quality, and I hope that sooner or later you will touch one of my favorite subjects about word building again. Thank you for being awesome. :)

[@alderontyran]

Just an FYI, the Seasons interactive that is used and linked, broke with Flash. SO there is no way to do as he did in the video that I am aware of (yet)

[@GasNobili]

I see, that's sad. I was looking for that, thank you for telling. it would be cool to remake it

[@alderontyran]

@@GasNobili I use gplates and make a texture map, then use universe sandbox, but it's a lot of work

[@kylera2190]

Hell yeah man! GoT seasons are explained by magic alone but if you could explain it somehow that would be tight. IIRC, It's OK To Be Smart did a video and brought up that if Planetos orbited 3 suns that orbited each other the seasons would be unpredictable... But I don't really know, but I'd love to hear your take on it!

[@Artifexian]

+Kyler A Ye, there are a few videos knocking around on yt about GoT. I'll try and do a different take on the subject - not just rehash what's already out there.

[@pavelslama5543]

The planet in my story experiences around 10 degree tilt, which makes the polar conditions absolutely brutal (the planet has relatively big polar caps which are absolutely impassable to human beings). But there is also an equatorial strip which is also uninhabitable by humans. So the northern and southern hemisphere races and sentient beings are mostly trading using ocean going ships (the equator is still very hot even on the ocean, but not unbearably so like on the land), and tunnels through mountain ranges.

[@dacriaxvgr]

This video helps me a lot! I'm trying to make a sci-fi world centered on an "Eyeball Planet" but im still debating on making it a tidally locked planet, or an extremely tilted planet. Maybe some astornomers in the chat or the man himself could help me decide the best course of action.

[@tamerlane9889]

I have two Quistions 1 What website did you use to simulate the earth with diffrent tilts? 2 How much time do have to put in ONE Artifexian video? thanks for reading!!!!

[@Artifexian]

+MaarMassinGaming I have two answers :) 1. goo.gl/xEYtEc 2. Depends, it's usually about 5 - 10 hours per minute of final video - that's including researching, scripting, storyboarding, filming, editing and exporting/uploading.

[@tamerlane9889]

+Artifexian Thank You (:

[@artirbis]

I've watched all of your videos in about 2 days and subscribed! You're awesome and deserve so much more views!

[@georgialloyd-roberts5804]

This was so therapeutic to watch.

[@ChBrahm]

Artifexian: "If above 54° the polar and tropical lines Switch" Me: "Hhmmm"

[@ShadowWolfTJC]

Also, in a world with an axial tilt of 90 degrees, could life evolve to deal with these harsh seasonal extremes? I mean, I've heard of animals hibernating throughout the winter (like bears), or migrating to where it's always more pleasant (like geese). Perhaps there could even be migratory organisms that take advantage of photosynthesis (like, say, migratory plants)?

[@vjorp5332]

I think plants would become a migratory species. Slowly walking around the plant making one round each year. Having 100% sunlight. Or they'd addapt in the same way a planet with high excentricity would.

[@DeyaViews]

There'd likely be vibrant life near the middle, which exists in near-perpetual twilight during summer and winter.

[@ColinPaddock]

Vjorp There’s a number of possible adaptations. Mobility is one. Some plants would almost certainly simply die at the end of their growing season, leaving tough seeds to germinate, grow and produce seeds themselves the next time conditions were amenable. Others might build up nutrient reserves, cyst up and survive the hard times in as torpid a state as possible. These are a few possibilities that occur to me. I’m sure smart creative people could come up with more, and given time evolution could produce lots more than that.

[@RacingStripeAV]

Does the "54° rule" (4:56) also apply to worlds with tilts higher than 90° (ie, counter-clockwise spins), or should that rule only apply to worlds with tilts between 54° and 126°? Similarly, should a planet have a 0/180° tilt (5:31), could the "seasons" be instead dictated by how eccentric (or perhaps off-center) its orbit around the star is? If the planet is even a little bit closer to the star, it'll be warmer, right - or would the difference in temperature be so tiny, its practically negligible?

[@Ggdivhjkjl]

Why would they switch at 54° anyway? Shouldn't they switch at 45° seeing that's half of 90°?

[@wanderingrandomer]

@@Ggdivhjkjl Dude, you should really stop spamming the comments with that. Just put that as a regular comment, then more people will see it.

[@sharperhenz90]

Love watching your videos! Let's hear that Westeros explaination!

[@Artifexian]

+Henry Zakay Cheers, Henry. Looks like the GoT video is a definite now. Lots of people seem to want it. :)

[@sharperhenz90]

Awesome! I can't wait for more wordbuilding! You should write a book kind of like the language construction kit on the subject, you explain it very well!

[@orioni]

Thank you Edgar this is really very interesting. I was surprised to learn the tropics and poles can flip!

[@Valosken]

Not only have I been wondering about this exact subject recently, but I've been wondering about Westeros'. DO IT.

[@Artifexian]

+Valosken Will do! Theres plenty of GoT explanation videos floating around youtube but I believe I have something unique to add to the discussion. #teaser :P

[@Valosken]

Artifexian Nice. ;) When's the next Conlanging vidya?

[@Artifexian]

+Valosken When depends solely on how fast I can script. So, I don't know, but it will definitely by the next video.

[@Valosken]

Artifexian Nice.

[@Ggdivhjkjl]

So, are you planning on adding that unique thing anytime soon mate?

[@Tokyo_Valentine]

Hey Edgar I was wondering if you can make a video about radiation emitted from planets and how would it affect life on there.Since Jupiter emits high amounts of radiation because of its magnetic field and its moons receive so much it, I hope you can explain it in a video.

[@jamesbohlman4297]

Excellent job Ed.

[@Lucas72928]

Awesome video, one of my favourites so far! Could you tell us what the couple next videos will be about?

[@Artifexian]

+LucasFlecoRepe I can't because I don't know yet. I would imagine a GoT video will be very soon...possible a part 2 to this video...some more linguistic stuff. See very often I start writing a script to a video and then realise that it's awful scrap it and start a different thing. Or I just wake up one morning and get an idea in my head and run with it. Not trying to be secretive, I honestly don't know. The only thing I can say for certain it that the next video will be a linguistic video.

[@KatamoriENG]

Your style is extremely similar to MinutePhysics/Earth, but since you discover otherwise "shallow" topic, i can only support your activity! Subbed!

[@athanasiosklidaras9490]

Awesome video! Next, could you cover tectonic plates, and how to realistically construct continents?

[@Artifexian]

+Saturn'sMoon Titan Will be getting to that eventually. Have a good bit to cover in terms of climate, weather, atmosphere etc first.

[@bradywb98]

+Artifexian can you include in your atmosphere videos how to know the composition of your planet's atmosphere based on its size? And also, can you include somewhere how to know ocean current paths? Thanks man!

[@Artifexian]

+Brady Burnsides Possibly not the first point (never say never though). I may focus on just talking about the different types of atmospheres and what sort of life could arise in those environments. I.e., is a chlorine based atmosphere possible...how would life evolve as a result. But oceans and wind patterns will most definitely be covered!

[@yoironfistbro8128]

Please do a video on climate next

[@mattw.6039]

Anyone know how to find/run the Seasons Interactive now that Flash Player is no longer supported?

[@frederikpeytz8286]

Your videos are really good. If you keep up with this you will definetly get many subscribers in the future

[@Artifexian]

+Frederik Peytz I dunno, I think this channel is too niche for most. I mean I've tried to explain worldbuilding to my friends and family and even after much effort they don't see the point. But thanks for watching m'man. Means a lot. Will endeavour to keep the content coming. Stay tuned.

[@frederikpeytz8286]

thanks :)

[@kalez238]

Looking forward to Westeros. It is interesting how something so simple can create such drastically different worlds. Now you have me wanting to alter my current world, lol. You mentioned certain tilts having drastic storms, but you didn't go into detail about how drastic, as well as the kind of weather other tilts would experience. I would be interested in hearing about some of these differences.

[@Artifexian]

+kalez238 Ye, I will potentially make a part 2 to this video. The only issues is that there are so many variables involved - landmass configuration, atmospheric density etc - that it's very hard to make declarative statements. No two 40 degree worlds, for example, will have the exact same surface conditions. Essentially, I'd need I'd need time one a supercomputer to run various simulations. :(

[@Alexandra-ip2by]

Artifexian seasonbuilding 102? 202?

[@tangerian319]

I've actually been working on a crazy solar tracker for a game i'm making, and I derived all the maths for the position of the star in the sky, only hiccup is the planetary eccentricity... Which is proving to be more complicated than anticipated

[@douglasthecorgi2568]

Could you do a video or two about ocean and air currents, weather patterns, and tides? Also, plate tectonics.

[@JayFolipurba]

Again very informative. You could build a system on video, according to your informations up to this point, as a reference. It'll be the edgarian system which you then could use as a groundwork for upcoming topics like politics, economy, geology, ...

[@Artifexian]

+JayFolipurba Perhaps...but there's already a ton of videos I need to make. Don't know if adding more videos to the list will be a good thing. That said, myself and my podcasting co-host, Bill McGrath, did construct some systems on the podcast. Might be of interest to you: www.artifexian.com/theartifexianpodcast/2015/8/28/ap-7-handwavia-and-dager

[@brynnplant]

This is fabulous and EXACTLY what I was looking for thank you

[@joblakh]

5:15 the polar area wouldn't be the area arround the ecuator but rather 30-90 degrees removed with the tropics being between 0 and 60 degrees from the ecuator. Exactly what that means for the climate is outside of my expertise but suficed to say that they don't actually swich sides, but rather overlap.

[@atps]

Great video, as always, +Artifexian! How do you do your research?What sources of information do you use creating these amazing videos?

[@Artifexian]

+Peter Slavchev I just try to read as much as possible. Also, try my best to source as much of the info from actual scientific papers and other primary sources. Thanks for watching, m'man. :)

[@atps]

+Artifexian Thanks for the answer. Whatever you do, just keep doing it, cause your videos are awesome.

[@dan_tr4pd00r]

So um what happens at, say, the 45 degree latitude lines if your axial tilt is 46 degrees? ie Tropic lines at 46 degrees and polar lines at 44 degrees

[@Artifexian]

+Hi Ho Wolverhampton In theory, you'd have a 2 degree temperate zone between the tropics at 46 and poles at 44. i.e., all the stuff in green would be found in that 2 degree zone. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperate_climate#/media/File:Klimag%C3%BCrtel-der-erde.png

[@ferguson704able]

+Artifexian Gee, sounds cramped.

[@ColinPaddock]

At exactly 45° the arctic and tropic circles would coincide. I’m assuming that’s what Edgar meant when he said and wrote 54°. We are all terribly flawed human beings, but you gotta respect a guy willing to take the chance of exposing his imperfections to share his knowledge.

[@livedandletdie]

The Tropic and Polar Lines switched places but still the Temperate zone is the zone in between them, no matter which side is which.

[@Ggdivhjkjl]

@@Artifexian, why do they switch at 54°? Shouldn't they switch at 45° seeing that's half of 90°? Isn't Colin Paddock right in what he said 6 months ago (just above)?

[@BigElite0021]

So Pluto is tidally locked to its moon Charon (cause its almost exactly half the size of Pluto and really close to Pluto) they orbit around an empty barycenter, which makes their day roughly an Earth week long. So if my planet was like Pluto and Charon, but double their size and moved to a habitable zone and a perfect tilt to 90 degrees. In theory it seems like a habitable planet, a day would be about a week but that seems doable for a humanoid right? despite the 90 deg tilt

[@BHeisler59]

A peculiar thing. Abu Sir in Egypt, sites features are aligned 23 deg off N & S. It is considered one of the oldest sites and some say it is the epicenter of a catastrophe. Damage to megalith's from apparent residue of extreme heat, many are broken. Most sites are aligned north and south. Its an entertaining thought that perhaps at Abu Sir's building date, the earth had no tilt or they were showing something historically relevant to earth. Just seems too much to be a coincidence.

[@TimmacTR]

Where can we find the little program you show us that shows how the days would pass?

[@geoffreybrunell5592]

description

[@ynntari2775]

I think the "0° to 180°" is just a reference thing, mathematical, not actual. Because if you saw a planet "tilted to the unusual side" you could consider it being, like, 20° tilted in the "wrong" direction, or being 160° tilted in the same direction as everybody else.

[@TF8ase]

Very cool. This could tie in nicely to cultural dispositions toward temperature and building. Typically more hospitable climates understandably seem to encourage more optimistic interpretations of the universe. Also the variety of climates informs the overall habitability of the world and would likely effect progress. Lastly I was thinking that life requires energy and we find a definite correlation between sweet spots of warmth and life itself. I don't have any evidence for that but the correlation seems correct. Thus having a large area of warm might fascilitate life generally rather than purely sentient life. Oh and there are so many contrivances we could indulge in having two cultures form at the habitable 'poles' on planets with such extreme tilts. Everything from extremely differing lifeforms discovering they're not alone to a social experiment of an advanced civilisation seeding each pole somehow.

[@parthiancapitalist2733]

Should the pole switching be after 45°?¿?¿?

[@fliagm]

Amazing, this is something I had never considered. Thank you!

[@WY666]

2:08 - My new credo: "I am but just a delicate sack of water"

[@JimboJamble]

6:01 I wrote something regarding planets with a 90º tilt in response to another viewer on another video before I saw this one. I said much the same thing, but you seem to be neglecting the potential for a habitable climate on the equator of a world like this. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the equatorial regions would experience eternal twilight during the polar summer/winter and would have a pretty standard day/night cycle during the spring/fall, giving them a pretty consistent (and, ideally, livable) temperature year-round. And even though the poles would be largely uninhabitable, the fact that they swap once a year would drive the planet's weather, keeping water and atmosphere flowing around the planet instead of becoming permanently frozen such as might happen on a tidally locked planet. Speaking of, I second many viewers' requests for you to do a bit on tidally locked planets. What they are, how they come to be, where they're most likely to be found, and what challenges they pose to life.

[@JDiako97]

Actually with a 60 degree axial tilt the polar and tropical regions in the latitude between 30 and 60 degrees would overlap. That's because the tilt is so extreme that in those latitudes the sun would eventually be overhead and in the solstices would have 24 hours day in the summer and 24 hours night the winter. So it's like being polar and tropical at the same time.

[@wanderingrandomer]

Yes, that's what I was gonna point out. I'm trying to work out wind patterns for a high tilt world, and to say the poles 'switch' is kinda misleading; they overlap, as you say. Within the band where the poles and tropics overlap I can imagine the wildest temperature swings being.

[@davewreichert]

I'd like to see what you come up with for a habitable binary planet. Axial tilt ~20*, tidally locked, orbit around barrycenter ~24-30 hours, each planet ~.8 mass of earth, one higher in metals, the other higher in silicates (only 10-20% difference) I think these world building videos are fascinating!

[@ClaudiaCarranza1]

I really enjoy your videos. i like fiction writing and table top rpgs so your vidoes on world building and conlang are super useful. muchisimas gracias!

[@Artifexian]

+Claudia Carranza No problem! Thanks a million for watching. Glad I can be of service.

[@vorquel]

4:55 I think you mean tilts greater than 45 degrees. At 45 degrees the polar and tropical circles would be in the same place, thus that must be the tipping point.

[@Artifexian]

+Vorquel That's what I thought, yet all the papers I've read mentioned 54 degrees as the tipping point. My thinking (although I've yet to find a source that confirms this) is that 45 degrees must be the theoretical tipping point but once you factor in things like the fact that planets aren't perfect spheres things get a bit fuzzy. It may even be the case that the tipping point varies from planet to planet based on their unique set of variables. Naturally I would have thought 45 degrees but I decided to go with the experts on this - they're a LOT more knowledgable than I am.

[@vorquel]

+Artifexian Can I see some sources on this? That is too weird for me to leave alone. Edit: Source found, never mind that part. Edit #2: I figured out a reason that the tipping point wouldn't be at 45 deg, if you can visualize it. At 45 deg, The poles receive more radiation in the summer than the topics, and less in the winter, but they also get less radiation in the spring and fall. If you smoothly interpolate, the poles must be receiving less radiation overall, and thus the poles must still be the colder points at 45 deg. Confusing? Probably.

[@Artifexian]

+Vorquel Ye, they are in the description. :)

[@KickMyBucket.]

4:56 | Question: Would this happen if the tilt was greater then 54 degrees BUT beyond the point of where the suns rising and setting is reversed? in short, if you make a world tilt at say 150 degrees, would 4:58 happen?

[@SpringStarFangirl]

In my case, the planet is either 0 degrees or 180 degrees (haven't decided yet) and it's at the very outer boundary of the Goldilocks zone, meaning that it's mostly below freezing all year, with the poles completely icebound. Oh, and it orbits an M-star, so it's relatively close to its star compared to Earth. Edit- I discovered that most, if not all, planets around an M-type star are tidally locked, so I switched that to a K-type star because it's slightly more similar to the sun.

[@sumayyakhan4012]

What’s the phylogenetic relationship between axial Tilt of Earth and eye

[@vukkulvar9769]

I can see a 90° tilted planet being habitable with a very big sun and the planet being far awaaayyy so the full revolution around the star takes a big ass long time, with the habitable part of the planet really slowly shifting around over the long year.

[@gawys28]

3:36 so would that mean that a planet with a 45° tilt will have a sudden change from rainfofests to glaciers?

[@fafafabigben]

In terms of seasons, light distribution, tilts and tidal locking, are you also planning to address various moons? As in: if there's a mostly habitable/terraformed moon, and assuming most of its critical parameters (like gravity and magnetic field, and atmosphere) are already set within human-optimal bounds, what kind of light regime it might end up with? (Also, what might be the less obvious critical factors in such scenario.) I mean, I'll keep on digging and reading and poking at info myself anyway, but the animated explaining makes wonders to comprehension :D

[@Artifexian]

+fafafabigben I think you have the perfect strategy: dig until the video comes out. I do plan on making a "moon" video soon - it's probably the most requested video and it's getting to the point were I badly need to make it. Stay tuned.

[@fafafabigben]

Groovy, thanks :)

[@spacerants7393]

Really good video - can you also do one on seasons and orbital eccentricity?

[@cOmAtOrAn]

Prograde isn't counterclockwise by chance, it's counterclockwise by definition. The choice of which way's up is based on which direction things are spinning.

[@lynnvianey2418]

Could you make a video where you talk about the altitude of the Sun according to the change in axial tilt? I hope that makes sense >.

[@obbyistgamez6431]

at 45 degrees the equatorial and polar regions touch! 45 degrees away from the equator is where it should be and 90-45=45!

[@garrondumont7891]

what kinds of climate could you expect to find between the polar circles and the tropics? i am making a fantasy world and dont need everything to be scientifically accurate (because magic) but i would like to get the climates right.

[@kzeriar25]

in a 60 degree axial tilt planet, the equator would be completelly frozen, so there would be at least two separate oceans, a northern and a southern one right? how would ocean currents behave in that scenario?

[@ShadowoftheDude]

Think you could make a video about building a planet whose seasons are caused by an elliptical orbit instead of axial tilt?

[@flirora]

And maybe also in addition to axial tilt, so temperature changes would be more extreme in one hemisphere than the other.

[@VulcanTrekkie45]

Correction: the tropic and arctic circles would meet at 45 degrees, and switch at any angle greater than that. What that means for the climate I'm not sure, but I think the reverse temperate zones (that is the region in which the tropics and the arctic regions overlap) would have extremely strong seasons.

[@Artifexian]

+Spencer O'Dowd Nice try, but I'm sticking by my 54 degree statement. From a previous comment reply: "That's what I thought, yet all the papers I've read mentioned 54 degrees as the tipping point. My thinking (although I've yet to find a source that confirms this) is that 45 degrees must be the theoretical tipping point but once you factor in things like the fact that planets aren't perfect spheres things get a bit fuzzy." Truth by told, I don't really understand why 54 degrees is the tipping point but all papers referenced it so who am I to argue with real scientists.

[@danielrhouck]

+Artifexian If it wasn’t your typo (or just a statement in a single source) it must be climate related. Midnight sun is a geometric property, as is the sun directly overhead. They would in fact switch at 45°.

[@ColinPaddock]

Artifexian Somewhere around 60°(maybe 54°, I cant precisely remember), the annual insolation at the poles begins to exceed the annual insolation at the equator. Not exactly the same thing, but related.

[@Ggdivhjkjl]

@@Artifexian, having looked quite a while for this, thank you for confirming this. Would you please make a new clip to explain why this is, and how the overlapping polar and tropical regions of a planet with an axial tilt of between 45° and 54° would effect its climate? Thank you :)

[@notherNappaghost]

I see that Battlestar Galactica reference you made there. Sneeeeaky.

[@RossMcDowall94]

Fantastic video, subscribed for more worldbuilding stuff, interested in how other fantasy worlds like GoT do it too

[@Artifexian]

+Ross McDowall Super! Looks like this GoT video will definitely happen in the very near future. People seem very interested.

[@kwinvdv]

So a planet with a high axial tilt would have a habitable zone further away from its star. Do you know if this is only a few percentage, which could be neglected, or should one also take this in consideration when choosing the semi-major axis?

[@Artifexian]

+Kwin van der Veen I guess you could say that. The higher the tilt the warmer the planet so you may wish to move a planet further away from the star to compensate. Personally, I like the idea of there being places on the planet that are totally inhospitable and others that are relatively ok. A group of scientists (links in the description) modelled the earth at 85 degrees of axial tilt and found that the northern hemisphere would regular experienced average temperatures of around 100 deg C. It's hostile but such a world would make a very cool locale. Also, bare in mind that if life evolved on a high tilt world, it would adapt to survive the conditions there. Thinking how evolution may play out on different worlds is probably the coolest (hardest) part of worldbuilding.

[@jasonbarone5883]

Cool stuff. Yes I would love to see a Game of Thrones weather video.

[@Xob_Driesestig]

Quick question: it is common for terrestrial planets to be tidal locked with their star (red dwarf) but at what distance is this not a problem anymore? (I'm trying to build a planet around a red dwarf ( it has a mass of about half of the earth and about the same density)

[@Artifexian]

+xbob Driesestig Around Red dwarf stars, yes. I can't really given you exact distances, there's too many variables involved. Essentially, for a planet to be "free" of tidal lock you want the linked equation to spit out numbers upwards of hundreds of millions of years. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking#Timescale But again, planets around red dwarfs stars that orbit within the habitable zone will most likely be tidally locked. There's no way out of it.

[@Xob_Driesestig]

Thanks for replying! Here's an idea, can I perhaps make it tidally locked with a large moon so I can still have a day night cicle?

[@martijnbouman8874]

+xbob Driesestig I don't think so; I suspect the star would draw away any moon from a tidally locked planet.

[@powerhouseofthecell9758]

How about giving it an eccentric orbit, so it librates?

[@junkbucket50]

This was epic. Thanks for making the video

[@otherwords1375]

At 2:23, shouldn't the legal interval be between 100 and 180? 100 gives you the same angular distance as 80 from the x-axis (-10, plus 10 from a 90 degree rotation). 110 doesn't give symmetry about a mirror-reflection.

[@hcesarcastro]

I wonder what happens to the climate of a planet in some specific conditions. Sadly I could not test them in Seasons Interactive, since you can change the planet axial tilt but not the planet coordinates. For example, it is mentioned that with an axial tilt greater than 54 degrees, the equatorial region experiences polar conditions and vice-versa. Why 54 degrees? (Or is it just a typo, should be 45? Or is it an aproximation?) Moreover, what happens in this limiting condition where the climate conditions change? Would there seasons still exist? And with an axial tilt of exactly 45 degrees, where the tropics and the polar circles converge?

[@Tentites]

How well could a habitable planet with 90 degree axial tilt do around a cooler K-class stars, or even a such a world orbiting in the habitable zone of a Red Dwarf star that may otherwise have been tidally locked? The orbital periods would be much shorter, so perhaps life could manage better on such worlds?