Post by
tamaracktop on Jul 18, 2021 1:31am
Quit the bickering, did you know this?
It is an interesting coincidence that the Moon should so nearly perfectly blot out the Sun during a solar eclipse, since there is really no physical reason why this has be the case. The Moon happens to be about 400 times smaller than the Sun, but the Sun happens to be about 400 times further from the Earth than the Moon is. So simple geometry tells us that the apparent disk of the Moon is almost exactly the size of the apparent disk of the Sun.
Comment by
tamaracktop on Jul 18, 2021 8:24am
Correction: the DIAMETER of the Moon is 400 times less than the diameter of the Sun, and the Sun is 400 times farther from the Earth than the Moon. That's why the Moon almost precisely blots out the Sun during a total eclipse. It's an uncanny coincidence.... I didn't put it well the first time.