The concept of the Full Moon?

Question

I have some confusion on the phase of the moon: Full Moon. The confusion is that at the full moon the earth is between sun and when the earth comes in the middle of the moon and the sun then how the light of sun reaches the moon? The sunlight should be stopped by the face of the earth facing the moon.

Answer 1

The moon does not orbit the earth at the same angle that the earth orbits the sun. When the earth is between the moon and the sun it does not mean directly between, it is only an approximate location, there is still enough moon sticking out for the suns rays to hit. Very occasionally (when the orbits are right) the earth will totally block the suns rays, this is a lunar eclipse.

Answer 2

You're confused because you are looking at the situation two-dimensionally (as are most moon phase diagrams). Imagine the moon in those diagrams being lifted off the surface of the paper (or screen) - the rays from the sun can then reach it. The plane of the moon's orbit around the earth is not the same as the plane of earth's orbit around the sun - it is 5 degrees off. Doesn't sound like much, but those moon-phase diagrams are also not to scale. To get a real idea of the proper scale of things, go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon
Scroll down to the section on eclipses, there is a scale diagram just above it which shows how significant that 5 degrees is.
Also look at this animation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwGs8_otT64
and bear in mind that the lunar nodes occur at various points in the moon's orbit. When they coincide with the new/full moon, you have an eclipse. Most of the time, they don't.

Answer 3

That is an eclipse and is something totally different from a moon phase situation.

The moon phases work like this:

Take a tennis ball (or any ball) into a darkened room. Hold a flashlight behind your head and shine it onto the ball. Your head represents earth and your point of view of the moon at night time. The lit ball will appear "full" and bright. Hence the "full moon". The flashlight is, of course, the sun. Now, as you change the angle of the ball moving it to different locations around your head you will see different "phases" on the ball (moon). The changing size of the darkened side of the ball is what causes "phasing".

Now, if your head blocks some or all of the light getting to the ball, you are causing a LUNAR ECLIPSE (which is what you are referring to in your question.) Your head (earth) is now casting a shadow across the ball (moon).

Now hold the ball (moon) between your head (earth) and the flashlight (sun) blocking the light. That is a SOLAR ECLIPSE. That's what happens when the moon comes between the earth and the sun and the moon blocks out the sun's light causing the earth to be in the moon's shadow.

I hope this helps.

Click here for some helpful diagrams on LUNAR/SOLAR eclipses:

http://www.astro-tom.com/getting_started/eclipses.htm

Click here for some helpful diagrams on MOON PHASES:

http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question3.html

Answer 4

Since the Moon's orbit around the Earth is tilted a few degrees to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, the Moon usually passes just above or below the Earth's shadow at the time of full Moon. On those rare times that it passes through the shadow, there is a lunar eclipse.

Answer 5

The Earth only occupies a relatively small bit of the lunar sky. There is usually plenty of room left for the sun to illuminate the lunar surface. We see that surface relative to the angle of our position to the Moon and Sun. The only exception is when the Earth fall directly between the two, creating a lunar eclipse.

photo:
http://www.cosmos4kids.com/extras/dtop_earth/moonearth_580.jpg

Answer 6

If the Moon intersected the line between the Earth and the Sun thire would be a total eclipse.

Answer 7

Its the eclipse. The lunar eclipse always falls on a full moon night.

Answer 8

Hold your fist up in front of a light. Then hold a coin up behind your fist so it is in the shadow.
Now, can you move the coin so it is still behind your fist but NOT in its shadow?

Of course; ...so it is with the moon and earth's shadow.
The slight bit of inclination of the moon's orbit keeps it mostly out of the earth's shadow....

Answer 9

Michael is reliable. aside from with the flexibility to establish extra desirable at night, and in keeping with threat taking area in the superb thing approximately an entire Moon, it does not impact human beings. there isn't any customary mechanism for it to provoke us in any possible way--the gravitational pull of the Moon on human beings is thoroughly overwhelmed by potential of the Earth's gravity, and its tidal forces impact us even much less. extreme examine have been executed with reference to the Moons consequences on human beings, and that they have in certainty did no longer discover something.

Answer 10

all the answers are good but the moon also has times when it is close to the earth and times when it is farther away from the earth for long periods, when farther the earths shadow doesn't reach the moon