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How many hours do the North and South pole get?

How many hours of daylight does the North Pole experience when the Northern Hemisphere is receiving the most direct sunlight?How many hours of daylight is the South Pole experiencing during this same time?

Public Comments

1. The north pole gets 6 months of straight sunshine each year and 6 months of straight darkness, same goes for the south pole
2. It depends on what you mean by "daylight". At the north pole, civil twilight begins at 05:10Z on March 5, and the sunrises 09:13Z on March 18. Then the sunset is at 00:27Z on September 25, and civil twilight continues to 09:23Z on October 8. That's 190 days 15 hours and 14 minutes of sunlight, and 217 days 4 hours and 13 minutes of daylight. Six months would be 183 days, so this is a lot more than six months. That's because the atmosphere bends sunlight down toward the Earth. The northern hemisphere receives the most direct sunlight only for one instant a year, at 05:45 on June 21, 2009. So the answer to the question the way it is worded is "zero hours"! Civil twilight = sun is below horizon, but it is bright enough to do most things outside. Sunrise/Sunset = upper edge of sun is on horizon.