I learned that depending on which angle the sun hits the moon, it is visible to us on earth in different ways. We only see the part of the moon illuminated by the sun. There are 8 phases of the moon, the main ones being full moon, first quarter, full moon, and third quarter. Below is a picture I drew of what I learned from this activity:
Why do we see different parts of the moon each night?
The reason we see different parts of the moon each night is because the moon is constantly orbiting around us, even during daytime. Every night, when it is visible to us, it has orbited to another angle. Therefore, the way we see the light on the moon is slightly changed. We can only see a full moon when the moon is right behind the earth, since that is when the sun shines on the moon at an angle so that all the light is visible to us. See picture below:
However, when the moon is right in front of the earth, to us it's a new moon, since the light on the moon reflected to the sun isn't visible to us on earth. See the picture below on wave simulator:
What is a lunar month?
A lunar month is 29.53059 days. That is when the moon has completed its cycle once, and has gone one full time around the earth, a lunar month. Once the moon has completed its cycle, it starts a new one, and orbits the earth again.
How does the moon, sun and Earth interact to cause so many things to occur?
The moon, sun and Earth interact in many ways and basically make up our lives. The Earth revolving around itself creates our days and lives, and orbiting around the sun creates the seasons. The moon creates the tides on Earth, including spring and neap tides. The sun's light and heat makes life possible on Earth. Eclipses happen when the earth and the moon block the light of the sun from each other, so all three are needed for eclipses to happen. These three large masses orbiting around each other in space make our lives possible.
What causes an eclipse and tide?
An eclipse is when the Earth's shadow hits the moon or when the moon's shadow hits the sun. Either way, from Earth either the view of the moon or the sun is blocked. During a solar eclipse the moon is blocking the sun's light, being in directly between the sun and the earth. During a lunar eclipse, the moon is right behind the shadow of the earth. That means that the Earth is in between the moon ad the sun, so the sun's light doesn't reach the moon. Therefore, from earth we can't see the moon.
Tides are caused by the pull of the moon's gravity on Earth. The Earth's oceans are being pulled either towards the moon, or away from it. Below is a picture of how the moon creates the tudes to happen, and spring and neap tides. Neap tides 0ccur when the suns pull is on one side of the earth and the moon's pull is on the other. It creates a sort of a balance between pulls of gravity, so there is the least difference between between tides. A spring tide happens when the moon and the sun are one quarter on either side away from each other, putting their forces together. Then the difference between high and low tides is the greatest.
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