If I Could Gift Wrap the Moon
Posted by DrJeff on July 2nd, 2009
Filed under 1.4. Teachable Moments in the News, 1.5. Dr. Jeff's Jeffisms, 5.1.2. The Moon, 6. Cool Spacecraft
Copyright 2009 | About this blog
This post is a Teachable Moment in the News and a Dr. Jeff’s Jeffism.
Have you ever just stopped on a cloudless night and stared at the Moon? And I’m not talking about a 2 second passing glance, and a smile. A jewel in the night, it is a sight many of us learn to ignore. Yet it is ANOTHER WORLD, and we can see it clearly from our backyards. That to me seems like a gift.
Now for my gift to you. If you’ve never done it, or you haven’t recently, PLEASE just take out a simple pair of binoculars (forget the telescope) and look at the Moon. Do it with your children. Teach them an appreciation for what’s in their sky. It is a stunning site.
When you do, let them know there’s a brand new spacecraft orbiting the Moon. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), built at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center here in Greenbelt Maryland, went into lunar orbit on June 23. Today the first pictures of the Moon by LRO were released.
It looks so close, yet you would need 30 Earths side-by-side to span the distance from Earth to the Moon. Thus far, 27 humans have made the trip—12 humans have walked on the lunar surface.
Here’s a thought—maybe if I treated the Moon as a gift, and gave it the respect it deserves, it wouldn’t be taken for granted quite so much. So let me gift wrap it before presenting it to you anew. First, I’d need a piece of wrapping paper the size of—Africa. You don’t believe me? Look at the picture.
Here’s another way to say it—
If you wanted to explore the entire surface of the Moon it would
be equivalent to exploring the entire continent of Africa.
Now doesn’t that make you think of the Moon a little differently? Maybe like it really is another world? Maybe even a little in awe of that jewel in your sky?
Now do me a favor and find those binoculars, take out some lawn chairs, get a friend, your wife, your husband, the kids, and take a look tonight. I’ll even help. Here is a web site at the US Naval Observatory that will allow you to get times for Moonrise and Moonset in your area.
To Teachers:
1. Can you really wrap the Moon with Africa? The Moon is slightly more than 1/4 the diameter of Earth (0.27 x Earth’s diameter). Get a classroom globe of Earth, have your students measure its diameter, and then have them find a ball about 1/4 the diameter to represent the Moon. Have them trace the continent of Africa on the globe onto a piece of paper. Then have them cut out Africa on their paper and see if it can just wrap the ball representing the Moon.
Note: have them propose how to accurately measure the diameter of the Earth globe.
Hint: to measure the diameter (D) of the globe, they might measure the circumference (C) and divide by pi, since C = D x pi
2. Build a physical model of the Earth-Moon System: Next, have the students place the ball representing the Moon 30 Earth diameters away from the globe of Earth. They have just created a physical model of the Earth-Moon system. See if they are shocked at the distance between Earth and Moon (they will be.)
3. Interdisciplinary connections to human exploration: With your Earth-Moon model set up, remind your class that humans ventured from Earth … and WALKED on the surface of the Moon. You can have them read about it in three of my Blog posts: 1, 2, 3. To place the achievements of the Apollo missions in the broader interdisciplinary context of human exploration, have them read and discuss The Nature of Our Existence.
4. Check Dr. Jeff’s math: Have your class check my calculation to see if the surface area of the Moon is approximately equal to the area of Africa.
Hint: the surface area of a sphere = 4 x pi x r2 where r is the radius of the sphere
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