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Last Post 3/21/2012 9:38 AM by Claire Raftery

Eclipse

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Anonymous

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3/20/2012 1:59 PM
In an eclipse how does the tiny moon cover the massive sun?

Tags: eclipse, Moon, sun, father ted

Paulett Liewer

Basic Member

Posts:113

3/20/2012 3:45 PM
Hi How big an object looks depends on how close it is to your eye. Because the moon is much closer to you than the Sun, it appears bigger...just big enought to blocks the Sun. You can try this out easily. Take a quarter or a paper plate and you can see that it blocks out more of your view the closer it is to your eyes. Paulett

Claire Raftery

New Member

Posts:71

3/21/2012 9:38 AM
The Moon can cover the Sun because luckily, the Sun is four times the size of the Moon but also four times further away. There is a funny skit that tries to explain this idea of perspective (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vbd3E6tK2U). This is the same reason that you can cover the Sun or Moon with only your hand or finger from here on Earth. Even though they are much larger than your thumb, they are also much further away!