Talk:Tropics

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Tropics is included in the 2007 Wikipedia for Schools, or is a candidate for inclusion in future versions. Please maintain high quality standards, and make an extra effort to include free images, because non-free images cannot be used on the CDs.

[edit] Move

Tropical climate is a different concept than the region known as the tropics, so it deserves its own article rather than a one-line blurb at the end of the tropics article. I'm going to perform the move. - Draeco 16:42, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

"The tropics are the geographic region of the Earth centered on the equator and limited in latitude by the two tropics:" Bad start - defining tropics by tropics... I would recommend removing "the two tropics" from that sentence. Furthermore, the caption for the photo says "A noontime scene from the Philippines, a tropical island where the sun is directly overhead." which is also confusing - is the sun supposed to be directly overhead at the moment this photo was taken? From the picture, it appears that it is, so needs to be clarified. I will make these changes, plus some minor edits.

That photo is sadly representative of only 0.01% of the tropics, which are not usually such manicured lawns. But true, it does show the sun position nicely. Jidanni 18:40, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Area of tropical region

I would like to know the area of the tropical region (as well as sub-tropic, temperate, sub-arctic and arctic regions) in terms of percentage area of the earth's surface. I will have a go at trying to calculate approximate values, making the assumption that the earth is a sphere and rounding up the latitudes to 23.5 degrees. A mathemagician may be able to calculate more precise values. I think the value would make for an interesting addition to the article. Tomid 11:30, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Names

Neither Torrid zone nor Tropics are appropiate names to be used instead of the Intertropical Zone. Reasons are:

  • First, the Torrid zone is not the one where mean and maximum temperatures are higher than in the temperate zones.
  • Second, the word tropic means change and it was used since beginning to indicate the line where the climate changes from temperate to warm.
  • Third: The two tropics (actually, subtropical zones) are zones of dry climate on the western coasts of continents and much wetter climates on the eastern coasts. Obviously, subtropical climates are much more unstable than intertropical ones.
  • Fourth: The intertropical Zone has the most climatic stability regarding temperatures and rainy seasons. It also has the highest ecological diversity of all geographical zones. Tropics have much less ecological diversity.
  • Fifth: Tropics are lines, not zones.--Fev 03:37, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
I don't really see that this is relevant to the definition of the torrid zone, which is the area in which the sun is directly overhead at least once during the year - this definition has nothing to do with maximum temperatures, climates and climate stability, or ecological diversity. Not sure about tropics, though - maybe someone else can help out... --Greenwoodtree 02:04, 12 September 2007 (UTC)