Observing the Moon

Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation

• attraction between two bodies is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the bodies.

• Per the laws of gravitational forces, the the moon is the dominant force affecting the tides on Earth because the Sun is 390 times further away from us than the moon

_{Tidal movements on Earth | Weather (2015, September 27). Retrieved March 28, 2021, from https://emediava.org/lo/1000087912/playlist/3793214016}

Tides

• As the moon pulls on the earth it causes a bulge on opposite sides of the earth. This causes our high tides.

• Perpendicular to the high tides and the pull of the moon we have low tides.

• The Earth rotates on its axis causing us to have two high tides and two low tides each day.

• Earth rotates in and out of the high tide and in and out of the low tides

Moon Phases

Moon Phases

https://pixabay.com/images/id-150852/

Moon Phases

• 1/2 of the moon is always lit up

• We see different phases depending on where the moon is in orbit

• Takes ~29.5 for this cycle

• https://pixabay.com/images/id-150852/

https://pixabay.com/images/id-4969110/

Cmglee, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons