Page 145 - Innovator's Science-8

7 Nov. 2025 8 Nov. 2025 Moon may even rise in the afternoon between
14:23 15:17
2:00p.m. and 4:00p.m., and you can spot it
shining faintly in broad daylight.
You may need to wait a short while after the

The time and position of moonrise listed time for the Moon to climb high enough in
changes from one day to the next. the sky to be seen. Observing these shifts helps
us realise that the Moon's motion is steady but not the same as the Sun's.

The Moon's shape itself never changes—it's
always round. What changes is how much of the
Moon's sunlit side we see from Earth. The Moon
doesn't make its own light; it shines by

reflecting sunlight. Half of the Moon always
faces the Sun and is lit up, while the other half is
dark. As the Moon moves around Earth, only
Sunlight falling on the Moon
one side always faces us, but that side isn't

always fully lit. Sometimes, we see the whole bright side, and other times
just part of it. When the Moon is new, we can't see any of the lit side
because it's facing away from us. This is why the Moon looks different on
different days. To understand this better, we can do an activity to watch how

the bright part of the Moon changes as it moves around the Earth and Sun.

Activity-2 Aim: To understand how the visible bright part of the Moon changes as it revolves
around the Earth and receives sunlight from different angles.
Experiential Learning
Procedure:
• Fix a small so ball on a s ck. This ball represents the Moon.
• In a dark room or an open space at night, place a lamp or torch about 3 m away to
act as the Sun.
• Hold the ball at arm's length and slightly above your head. Your head represents
Science • Turn slowly in the an -clockwise
the Earth.
Bytes
Moon
Testimony direc on, keeping your arm stretched Sun
The bright shape you see out and your eyes on the ball. Observe Earth
on the ball depends on how the side facing you changes from
the angle between the bright to dark and back again.
lamp, the ball, and your
eyes. This simple model • No ce that at some posi ons you see the
explains why the Moon's whole bright side (like a full Moon), while
phases repeat every at others only part of it (like a crescent).
month as it revolves
around the Earth. • The curved line dividing the bright and
dark areas is called the terminator. It
appears similar to the curved boundary we see on the Moon in the sky.

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