Difference Between Dawn and Sunrise

Difference Between Dawn and Sunrise

All of us know what sunrise means. It is the time of the day when sun appears on the horizon and is clearly visible to us. Though the term is sunrise, it is actually our earth that rotates around the sun and sunrise is dependent upon the part of the earth we live in. There is another word dawn that confuses many as they believe sunrise and dawn to be synonymous. However, the reality is that dawn, also called daybreak, is that time of the day when sunrise has still not taken place. Let take a closer look at the two terms in this article.

Sunrise

Sunrise is that time of the day when sun appears to rise above the horizon for the first time. Though sun is stationary, this apparent motion looks real to us and in all civilizations; it was believed that the earth was stationary, and the sun revolved around our earth. It was left to Copernicus to convince the world that it was our earth and not the sun that was rotating. This gave birth to heliocentric model as late as 17th century.

Technically speaking, sunrise is a fleeting moment when the sun appears to be parallel to the horizon. However, people mistakenly refer to times before and after this moment as sunrise. The time of sunrise is not constant and keeps changing at all places depending upon the latitude, longitude as well as the time zone. Sunrise is also later in time during winters while it is much earlier during summers.

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