This term the year three classes have been learning about the Sun, Earth and Moon, and how they move to create day and night. One question that we investigated is:

 

Why do the sun and moon appear to be a similar size from Earth when the sun is actually much bigger that the moon?

First we looked at a table that explained the sizes of the Sun, Earth and Moon. 

Then we scaled them down, using different sized spherical objects to represent each.

 

 

To test out theories, each team took a tennis ball (to represent the moon) and basketball (to represent the Sun). They then stood holding the ‘moon’ whilst their partner with the sun moved away until both objects appeared to be the same size.

 

What we found out was:

The Sun and Moon appear to be the same size (even though the Sun is A LOT bigger) because the Sun is further away from the Earth than the moon.