A Moonth of Phases

A Moonth of Phases

Observations

Analyze & Conclude:

1)   The Earth was the big plastic ball, the moon was the smaller one and the sun was the flashlight.

2)   I didn’t see anything I saw the sun but nothing reflecting in the moon. In fact if you see in the drawing above number 4 is all shaded that means that we can see it. (the gray represents how much part of the moon is unseen.)

3)   Number one represents a waxing crescent; meaning that it is growing (waxing). Number two a full moon; from Earth you can see the whole moon, since the moon is behind Earth all the sun can reflect on it. Number 3 a waning crescent; waning is decreasing, so it is about to be a new moon. And number four a new moon; the new moon is when the sun can’t reflect on it because of the moon’s position.

4)   From space view you would see both sides: dark and brightened. Tough if you look at it as if you were on Earth, you would see all the phases, the moon would start to be very bright and the get darker as it moves.

5)    From space view you could always see half and the dark part isn’t caused by an eclipse.

6)    It helped me a lot so that I could see how everything works. How the moon rotates, the names of the different phases of the moon, why sometimes we see a waning gibbious and sometime only a crescent. Maybe the whole model wasn't as accurate, though it was very helpful, for me!