Eclipses: Crash Course Astronomy #5
The big question in the comments last week was, "BUT WHAT ABOUT ECLIPSES?" Today, Phil breaks 'em down for you. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace: http://www.squarespace.com/crashcourse...
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We humans of planet Earth benefit from a great coincidence. It’s a coincidence of time, and of space. And of math. The coincidence is this: the Sun is about 400 times wider than the Moon, and it’s also on average about 400 times farther away than the Moon. The apparent size of an object in the sky depends on how big it is and how far away it is... so these numbers being equal means the Sun and the Moon appear to be about the same size in the sky. And that’s where another interesting thing comes in: Sometimes, the Moon passes directly between the Earth and the Sun. It doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does, you get magic. Or even better: You get SCIENCE. You get an eclipse. An eclipse is a generic term in astronomy for when one object pa...
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We humans of planet Earth benefit from a great coincidence. It’s a coincidence of time, and of space. And of math. The coincidence is this: the Sun is about 400 times wider than the Moon, and it’s also on average about 400 times farther away than the Moon. The apparent size of an object in the sky depends on how big it is and how far away it is... so these numbers being equal means the Sun and the Moon appear to be about the same size in the sky. And that’s where another interesting thing comes in: Sometimes, the Moon passes directly between the Earth and the Sun. It doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does, you get magic. Or even better: You get SCIENCE. You get an eclipse. An eclipse is a generic term in astronomy for when one object pa...
