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Earth-Moon-Sun System: Eclipses Models

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2006

Rosa M. Ros
Rosa M. Ros
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Mathematics 4, Technical University of Catalonia, Jordi Girona 1-3, 08034 Barcelona, Spain email: ros@mat.upc.edu
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Abstract

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Everybody understands what is meant by an eclipse: a body that covers another one. However, the general audience and the students in particular do not know exactly “What the relative positions of the Earth, the Sun and the Moon have to be in order for an eclipse to take place?”

You can read a newspaper or watch TV and observe that the information about an eclipse is not correct. In my country, it was stated, in a very important newspaper, that “the solar eclipse will take place tomorrow because there will be a Full Moon”.

Teaching this topic in schools or in educational sessions in observatories, it is a good idea to introduce a simple model that maintains the proportion between the diameters and distances of these three bodies. This contribution will introduce this model, showing their applications in the playgrounds of the school, for sunny days or in the classroom for cloudy days.

Keywords

eclipsesmiscellaneushistory of astronomy
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 2 , Symposium S233: Solar Activity and its Magnetic Origin , March 2006 , pp. 503 - 510
Copyright
© 2006 International Astronomical Union