What do you think causes the moon's phases?

Question

The Earth casting a certain shadow on the moon, or the moon's fullness being viewed from a particular geometry? I'd love to hear you explain your answer, and cite sources.

10 points, etc.

I'm asking this question in response to my friend recently trying to disinform me of what creates moon phases, and see what the popular consensus is, despite the facts.

Answer 1

as the moon orbits the earth we see it from different angles and see different amounts of the side lit from the sun

Answer 2

Moon & Earth Phase Viewer

These are called "phases" of the Moon. ... The four major moon phases are "New" , "1st Quarter" , "Full" and "Last or 3rd Quarter" ...

CHECK THIS WEBSITE:

home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moo... - Cached

Google moon phases, then check the submission on the first page that contains the above site..............

..........so much neat stuff on that site!!

Just a little something that is at the very bottom of that site, but I wanted to be sure that you didn't miss it.  This misunderstanding causes a lot of disagreements among folks who don't understand the concept.................

Moon Phase Misconception...

"The most common incorrect reason given for the cause of the Moon's phases is that we are seeing the shadow of the Earth on the Moon! But this cannot be correct: when the Moon passes through the shadow of the Earth, we get a lunar eclipse. Anyone who has seen a lunar eclipse, though, might remember that the Moon actually passes through the Earth's shadow only rarely, so that can't be why the Moon has phases. The real reason for the Moon's phases depends on two things: the Moon is round, and the angle it makes with the Earth and Sun changes over its orbit."

- As Quoted From Bad Astronomy

ok--just a bit more of cool info I just found:

Blue Moons

There are also months with two full moons. The second full moon in a month is known as a blue Moon. Because this happens fairly infrequently, it has resulted in the expression "once in a blue moon."

  

Months without a full moon

There are months in which no full moons occur. For example, there was a full moon at 18:25 universal time on Feb. 28, 1991. This means there was no February full moon in east Asia and the Pacific, where it was already March. Years in which February lacked a full moon are 1809, 1847, 1866, 1885, 1915, 1934, 1961, 1999, 2018, 2037, 2067, 2094 (Meeus 1995, Odenwald)

Moon rise times

The New Moon always rises at sunrise.

The first quarter Moon rises at noon.

The Full Moon rises at sunset.

The last quarter Moon rises at midnight.

Moonrise takes place about 50 minutes later each day than the day before.

That's it--gotta go make some points.  Hope I've helped!

Answer 3

my butt

Answer 4

The way the sun and earth and moon aline. The shadow of the earth flashes on to the moon.