if the earth is round? how come we see a perfecly halved moon?
543648
Oh no, you've figured out my hoax!!! You busted me, you're right, its not round. Sorry, I get silly sometimes. If you are at a position when the moon passes directly perpendicular to you relative to the sun's position then you will see a perfect half lit moon. you can simulate this with a big right triangle by taking a golf ball or some other ball and placing it at the  90 degree corner and placing a flashlight at one of the other corners pointing directly at the ball. Now line up your sight from the third corner and you should see a perfect half lit ball. :)
551432
It's just an assumption...\n\ncoz it looks like a sphere... like how the moon looks round...\n\nBut can u be sure!!!
710177
Its still a little bit dark and the light from earth when reflected back to the moon enables u 2 see the dark side of the moon but this will only happen when there is not enough light to block your view.
477677
Cautious cook is a moron!  The moon, as anyone knows who passed high school physical science, remains the same distance while orbiting around the earth (us).  Also, interesting to note, the rotation of the moon is, in relation to the orbit, the same speed.  Meaning no matter at what part of the orbit, the moon is, we always see, the same side of the moon.  This is known as the light side of the moon.  The only way to see the dark side is to go there.  Apollo did this.  Now, onto your question it is very easily answered.  Just as a lens warps light to make things appear closer or farther away, the atmosphere of the earth is curved causing the same effect towards the horizon.  The reason you don't have this effect when the moon is overhead is because you are looking through less of the atmosphere, and the effect is less prominent.
12525
There is a bulge of water on the side of the earth facing the moon because of lunar gravity. The previous explinations for the second bulge (on the opposite side of the moon) are incorrect.  The mass of the earth is constantly accelerating toward the moon, as they orbit eachother.  The smaller second bulge is a result of the earth accelerating away from the water, toward the moon
214288
First, you must picture in your mind the 3 celestial bodies: sun, earth and moon. Picture the moon circling the earth: now it is between the earth and the sun, now it is at the other side of the earth, now it comes back again between earth and sun... As you know it takes about 4 weeks for the moon to make an entire circle around the earth.\nWhat happens when the moon is between us and the sun? well, it receives light from the sun on the face that is turned that way, so  we can't see it at the moment. That's why we can't see the new moon! It's there is the sky, but not lighted in the side facing us!\nThen 2 weeks later the moon is on the opposite side. The face that is facing the sun - and reflecting all that sunlight - is also facing the earth! So we see it fully - full moon.\nBut the path of the moon is not entirely on the same plane as us and the sun, there is a slight angle!!  Only sometimes it happens that the shadow of the earth catches the moon when it's full (and when it is perfectly aligned with the earth and the sun). THAT's your eclipse!!
1016790
It's because your mind sees the moon in proportion to landscape features when it is low.  It's kind of an optical illusion - it's not really bigger but your mind interprets it as bigger.
790340
Beacause asit goes around the Earth it becomes closer and further away during its cycle.  The moon is in an oval orbit.\nhttp://stardate.org/nightsky/moon/
499567
no it's not cos of the earth's shadow on the moon. its cos of the position of the sun and the angle at which the sun's rays hit the moon. the moon moves around the earth. if it moves further from the sun, less light will be reflected and you see a half-moon or quarter-moon.\n\nas u know, the light hte moon 'projects' is actually the reflection of light. the moon isnt a source of light. \n\nwhen the sun is directly behind the moon, and it shines on the 'back' of the moon, this causes an eclipse cos ppl on earth can only see a dark circle (the moon - as it does not reflect light in this case) and a whitish circle around the moon (the sun's rays)\n\nhope this helps!! :D
513987
What confuses you about the moon? Most planets have them. Ours is old, lifeless, has a high reflectivity, and rotates once for every revolution (so we always see the same side). Why are you confused?
46600
To tell if the moon is waxing (getting bigger) or waning (getting smaller) look at which side of the moon is "filled-in," or visible. If the right side is visible, the moon is waxing (getting bigger.) If the left side is visible, the moon is waning (getting smaller.)\n\nO'course, if you live in the Southern Hemisphere this is the opposite (the left/right visibility factor is reversed.)
61467
The moon spins about an axis. The axis  is almost perpendicular to the plane of the moons orbit around the earth. The period of spin (time to complete one rotation about the spin axis) is equal to the period of one revolution around the earth.\n  The result is we see one side of the moon.\nFor many people this answer is not suffice to understand.\nImagine a cubical building in a plain ground. The four vertical walls are marked A,B,C,D.  Imagine the building to be the moon and we are standing infront of the wall marked A. Let us go round the building to see the other walls in the order of ABCD. When we have finished quarter round we can have the full view of the wall B. But imagine  that the building rotates itself such that when we finished quarter round it also has rotated quarter round about itself. We will see only the wall A. If the things continue like this we can never see the other walls.When we complete one round the building completes one round so always we see only the wall A.\n Due to librations actually we can see 59% of the moon instead of 50%
335545
Because when it's closer to the horizon, we have other objects (trees, houses, or even mountains) to compare it to, and the moon (or sun) looks very large, taking up 2% of the horizon.\n\nWhen it's farther up in the sky, there's nothing around it, so it tend to disappear in all that empty space.  Even though it still takes up 2% of any given arc, there are wide open arcs to the right, to the left, to the top and to the bottom of the moon that are totally devoid of objects.  Relative to all that open sky, it doesn't look so big.
354795
It is a lot easier to demonstrate this with graphics than trying to explain it in text.  You can likely find a good diagram if you go to google it.\n\nFirst imagine the sun.  Now imagine the earth revolving around the sun.  Keep in mind that the earth and the sun are both extremely small compared to the distance that the earth is from the sun.  this means it's like two specks of dust revolving around each other in a basketball court, to give some perspective.\n\nNow imagine the moon revolving around the earth but ignoring gravitational effects of the sun (for simplicity).  Since the earth is so small compared to these revolutions, imagine that the earth very rarely blocks the light from the sun shining on the moon.\n\nNow when you observe the moon, if it is roughly between you and the sun, it is the backside of the moon that is lit.  This means the only part of the moon that you see is the shadow - or the new moon.  If when you observe the moon it is roughly behind the earth, you get to see the part of the moon that is being shined on by the sun - a full moon.  Since the moon revolves around the earth at a rate different from the rate at which the earth spins on its axis, the moon will change its orientation to give us our progression through the phases of the moon.\n\nJust an additional bit - eclipses are those rare times when the earth's shadow actually DOES hit the moon.. making what would've been a full moon into something else (a lunar eclipse).  The more commonly noticed (due to the drastic change in light during the day :D ) solar eclipses are when the moon directly blocks the sun's light from the earth.  These occur at regular intervals over series' of years.
112075
The most we can ever see is 59% ...\n\nRelative to the Earth, the Moon makes one rotation every 29.5 days. That happens to also be the time it takes for the Moon to complete one revolution around the Earth. This might seem like a coincidence, but it's not. \n\nIn the past, the Moon used to rotate much faster than it does now. But over millions of years, the effect of the Earth's gravity has slowed down the Moon's rotation until it became gravitationally locked to the Earth. This is why we always see the same side of the Moon. \n\nIt would seem logical to say that at any one time we can see 50% of the Moon's face. If the Moon were flat, that would be correct, however we know the Moon is a sphere. And the spherical shape of the Moon hides the area close to the perimeter and we can, at any one time, see only 41% of the Moon's face. \n\nEven though the same side of the Moon's faces us, we do see a bit more than half of the Moon's face. Over time, because of librations, we can see up to 59% of the Moon's surface. \n\nLibrations are irregular motions of the Moon in its elliptical orbit around the Earth. They are measured using longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates. Both are computed from a central point that is at a fixed geographical location on the lunar surface. This point is in the Sinus Medii, a small plain just below and to the right of he large rayed crater Copernicus. Two meridians emanate from this point: the Central Meridian runs north and south, and the Lunar Equator runs east and west. \n\nDifferent librations affect different sides of the Moon and each contribute added surface area. The added viewable surface area changes from day to day and month to month. Some librations overlap, but the maximum amount of lunar surface that we can see over time is 59%. \n\nThe longitudinal libration is produced by the elliptical orbit of the Moon. Because of the nature of the elliptical orbit, the speed of the Moon changes depending on which part of the orbit it is in. When moving from its fastest point (closest to Earth) to its slowest point (farthest from Earth,) the Moon's speed is slowing down. But, because the Moon's rotational speed stays the same, for a period of time the Moon's face is not pointed directly at us, and this "lag" effect allows observers to see an extra bit of the lunar surface. In effect, we are "peeking" around the edge of the Moon! When the Moon is one quarter of the way around the Earth, it is 97 degrees through its rotation. \n\nThis libration is called longitudinal because the extra surface areas exposed are along the lines of longitude (perpendicular to the equator.) The total extra surface area we can see from longitudinal librations is about eight degrees. \n\nThere is also a libration that is latitudinal. The plane of the Moon's orbit is titled 5 degrees to the ecliptic. For half the lunar cycle, the Moon is above the ecliptic and for the other half it is below the ecliptic. Each of these half cycles expose an extra bit of the Moon. The extra surface area shown during these librations is at the top of the northern hemisphere or the bottom of the southern hemisphere. The total extra surface area we can see from latitudinal librations is almost 7 degrees. \n\nThere is one more librations called Diurnal Librations. This librations occurs every day. Observers can "see" over the top of the Moon as it is rising. Likewise they can see under the bottom when it is setting. Diurnal librations are caused because the radius of the Earth adds an extra 4000 miles of height for looking "over" or "under" the Moon when it is on the horizon. This daily libration gives us an extra one percent of lunar surface area for viewing.
821694
It's round because it has enough gravity to make it round, the force of gravity crushing away irregularities until a round shape is achieved. There's actually a limit in astronomy, anything with more mass then a certain amount will as a rule be round.\n\nAs for the holes, I assume you mean the craters. They are there because we're basically living in a shooting gallery of asteriods, comets, and meteors. On the moon there are no erosive forces so when one hits it the impact crater remains.
329109
The reason you can see the moon in the sky during the day is because at that time the moon has rotated to where it is inbetween the earth and the sun.  So they are both visable at the same time.  It takes 28 for the moon to circle the earth, this is also the cause of moon phases, such as full moon/ new moon ect.