ocr: MILANKOVITSH THEORY The Yugoslav mathematician Milutin Milankovitch studied the orbital parameters that cause seasonal variations on Earth. He calculated insolation curves for dif- ferent latitudes. The degree of eccentricity changes the relative Sun-Earth distance on a 100,000 year cycle. (The Earth is in an orbit around the Sun that is not quite circular because of the interactions with orbits and gravitational pull of other planets.) The Earth's axis tilts (obliquity) between 21.5 and 24.5 degrees with respect to the orbital plane. It has a cycle of 41,000 years. Like a spinning top, the Ea ...
