Lunar Phases and Tides Flashcards
What is a Lunar phase?
Has to do with the movement of the moon around the earth.
Waxing, waining, half moon, gibbous, and crescent moons
What is a waxing moon? what does waxing mean?
waxing means its getting bigger.. waxing crescent or waxing gibbous
What does waining mean? what kind of waining moons?
getting smaller, waning gibbous, waning crescent
What does gibbous mean?
moon that is mostly light
what is a crescent moon?
mostly dark
How long does a lunar phase process take?
takes a full month for this process to occur.
If it is noon, could you see a full moon overhead in the sky?
NO because the sun is high in the sky (high noon). You see the dark side when the sun is out. The only time you can see that is at dusk or dawn, when they are on opposite horizons.
Tides are caused by what?
The gravitational pull of the Moon and the sun on Earth.
Moon exerts more gravitational pull on the earth than the sun. why??
because it is closer than the sun even though the sun is much bigger. The earth actually bends towards the gravitational pull. The liquid part bends more.
What are Tides?
caused by gravitational pull of the moon and the sun. Earth bends towards gravitation, liquid part bends more. The oceans raise towards the moon, two high areas (high tides and low tides)
What are spring tides?
When the moon and the sun are in alignment, we get more extreme tides called spring tides (higher high tides and lower low tides) Does not occur every spring but happens every month.
What are neap tides?
When the moon and the sun are pulling at perpendicular angles (the sun is canceling out the moons efforts, taking gravitational force away) we get less extreme tides called neap tides (also occur every month).
