What are the phases of the moon and what causes them?
In class today we did a test using two Styrofoam balls and a flashlight. There was a larger Styrofoam ball that represented the Earth on a 23.5 degree tilt simulating the tilt of the Earth. A smaller ball representing the moon is positioned around the Earth in different places to represent the different phases of the moon. The flashlight would shine on the Earth and the moon to represent sunlight and the when the moon was in different areas then it would like the different phases of the moon. From my observations I learned that the phases of the moon are the new moon which is when the moon is completely dark, then go into a waxing crescent, then go into a waxing gibbous. After that it is a full moon, then a waning gibbous and a waning crescent. All of these phases take place over approximately 29 days that it takes for the moon to go around the Earth. I learned a lot in terms of what causes the different phases of the moon and it was very interesting to me. When the sun shined on the moon in different places it looked a lot like the test we did with the Earth. The movements of the sun around the moon was interesting and it was cool to see that the one side of the moon never faced the Earth This was a cool activity and is very realistic to show the phases of the moon even with the Earth.
