Sun in the polar regions vs. the tropics

Dear Tom,
The polar regions experience very short days in the winter, but the tropics
still have long days. The question is, do the polar regions receive as much
sun as the tropics? I would think not.
Martin Eck
Dear Martin,
We posed your question to astronomer Dan Joyce of the Cernan Earth and Space
Center at Triton College, and he provides this uncharacteristically brief
answer, "This is going to kill me, given my propensity for the long haul,
but, in a word, the answer is 'yes!'"
And that says it all. Cloudiness aside, long summer days and short winter
days in the Earth's polar regions offset each other, thereby exactly
preserving the annual average of six months of daylight and six months of
darkness. And that is also true everywhere else on the planet -- in the mid
latitudes (Chicago's location), in the tropics and at the Equator, and at
the North and South Poles.