Is it true that when we are closest to the sun it's cold, and when we're furthest from the sun it's hot

My science teacher told me something like this in middle school, or I might have heard wrong.

it is actually true, unlike what other people are saying.

I am assuming you live somewhere in the northern hemisphere?

if you do, when we are at perihelion(closest to the sun), the northern hemisphere is actually tilted away from it, therefore we aren't receiving a lot of direct light. When we are at aphelion(away from the sun), we are tilted towards it so we get rays that are the most direct.
Direct rays=more heat than being close


attached below is my drawing explaining this:)
enjoy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76809418@N0…

YES and NO, of course. The Earth has an elliptical orbit. The point closest to the sun is perihelion, and the point furthest is aphelion. There IS a warming effect from being closer to the sun, TRUE. However, the Earth is tilted 23 degrees from the sun-Earth orbital plane. The tilt results in the same effect, warming when the sun is highest in the sky, summer, and cooling when low in the sky, winter. The thing is, they are in opposition. In winter a few days from the solstice, we are at perihelion. So, we LOSE heat from the tilt, but we GAIN heat from the orbit. It is the magnitude which tells the tale. The effect of the tilt is much greater than the effect of distance.

Earth moves in an elliptical orbit. [An ellipse looks like you cut the center of a circle into two parts, called them 'focuses' (actually, 'foci'), then moved the two foci apart.]

The sun is one of the foci; nothing is at the other.

Earth is closest to the sun on the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere, so distance is NOT the heating factor.

The factor that causes summer and winter is the directness (the degree of perpendicularity) of sun's rays.

Yes, it is true for the northern hemisphere. When we are closest to the Sun in early January, we have winter. Six months later during July, we are further from the Sun and have summer. It has to do with the eccentric orbit of the Earth and how the Earth's axis is tilted. During the northern hemisphere summer, we are further from the Sun but the north polar axis is tilted towards the Sun, so it is warmer. Six months later it is just the opposite.