It's morning here in Tasmania, but as you can see, I step out the front door and here is the moon. Henry pointed it out to me. Well, actually he first thought that it was a ball of some description, but he soon realised his error.
Once we had that sorted, he wanted to know what the moon was doing out in the morning. You see, he's been indoctrinated by thousands, nay, millions of children's books that assure him that the moon only comes out at night, and then buggers off during the day.
Because I never smoked cigarettes, I lack the requisite scientific skills to fully understand, let alone explain, the whole notion of crescents, quarters, gibbons blah blah blah
I do know that it involves the reflection of sunlight, the phases of the moon, and that in a nutshell, parts of the Earth can see the reflected sunlight off the moon while that portion also faces the sun. Hence Henry and I can see the moon during the day.
Or maybe it’s got something to do with magical elves.
I can’t remember now.
Comments
I have tried so hard to figure out the phases of the moon. I can cope with new and full and crescent, it's the other one that does my head in. Just don't get it at all, how the sun can reflect in that particular shape.
If the sun is behind you, you can hold out you watch face and generate a reflection of the sun off the watch (I used to do this to annoy the teacher in school).
BUT, if my head is blocking enough of the sun's glare, there isn't enough light to generate the reflection.
So imagine that the watch face is the Moon, and my head is the Earth. Just like the Moon in the day, the watch is still there, but there isn't enough light to generate the reflected ray of light.
If any scientists are out there, am I right or wrong?
I don't think I have been able to explain it properly :-(.
We can see the moon because it is illuminated by the sun. In physics, we say that we can see anything because object reflects light; if it doesn't, then we can't see. That's where the word reflection comes into play. The sun does not reflect anything in any particular shape. The shapes are all due to movement.
One can try this experiment: take a lamp or a torch. Switch it on. Then in front of it, move two balls along orbits. Also, while moving them around orbits, rotate them around a tilted axis. Depending upon the tilted axis, the position of the light speed, distances, etc, one can imagine and see how various parts of two balls get into darkness and lightness, creating various shapes.
Errr..sorry for such a long comment :-S.
Now explain it the best you can and feed the fruit to the child.
They need their vitimin C.
Doc
Doc
The fish jokes were blue, (whale or marlin!) Best I could do as a first timer.
The phases of the moon are not caused by the earth getting in the way of the sun's light - that's an eclipse.
Take a look at one of those models they make to explain it, and it all becomes clear.
how strange that I almost bought the Frayn book today that you're currently reading. How is it?
I can’t see what else would cause the relative brightness (or otherwise) of the moon other than the placement of the Earth. The sun doesn’t have a dimmer, does it?
I need a smoke...
Beautiful blue for that big white moon.