Tidbit #28 - April 27, 2011

Ahh, the wonders of the stars. Astronomy helps us to understand one of the most beautiful, romantic things in the world: the night sky. One of the most beautiful aspects of the night sky is that giant ball of cheese in the sky: the moon. Astronomers have given many names to the "phases" of our moon, or how much sunlight reflects off of it to Earth at what time of the month. My question is:

Question: Why is a visual half-moon called a quarter-moon?


Answer: Well, I was hoping to have another long tidbit like our analysis of the dollar bill, but thanks to WikiAnswers, our answer is once again cut short to a small quote and condensed answer:

A half moon looks like half a circle. It is sometimes called a quarter moon because this moon has completed one quarter of an orbit around the Earth from either the full or new position and one quarter of the moon's surface is visible from Earth. (Re: WikiAnswers Question)

 Well, you were probably able to get the answer from that, but just in case you didn't:

A visual half-moon is called a quarter-moon because only a quarter of the moon's entire surface is lit.


That makes enough sense, right? If we see a 2-D half moon, it means we're only seeing a quarter of the 3-D full moon!