The phases of the Moon are the stages it passes through as it orbits the Earth. The Moon is always lit by the Sun so that half of it is in the light and half of it is in the dark; just like day and night on Earth. However, we on Earth cannot always see this. From our perspective the Moon gets brighter and more and more of its face becomes lit for about two weeks and then the Moon becomes dimmer and dimmer as a smaller and smaller fraction of it is lit up from our point of view. In this activity you will simulate this process using a dark room, a ball, and a bright lamp.
The Moon follow a path around the Earth as shown above. As you can see, when you look down on the system from above the Moon and the Earth are both half lit up and half in the dark. Put yourself in the position of the Earth and things look a bit different.
Use the ball to represent the Moon and the lamp to represent the Sun. You are the Earth. Draw what the Moon looks like from your point of view at each of the numbered positions. Each position is 45° from the previous position.
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| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
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| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |