"How far away is the Moon?" video on Youtube

Summary:

Found some good, short educational videos.

"How far away is the Moon?" video on Youtube

Marko S 31 May 2011 13:38

I'm not sure if anyone has already posted this somewhere on the site or the forum, but here it goes:

How Far Away Is The Moon? (The Scale of the Universe)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz9D6xba9Og

This is a nice video about the surprisingly large distance between the Earth and the Moon. Pretty cool stuff.

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One's convictions should be proportional to one's evidence. - Sam Harris

Re: "How far away is the Moon?" video on Youtube

Marko S 31 May 2011 13:52

A couple other great videos from this guy.

Where Did The Earth Come From?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuMjnP1YbPw

How Old Is The Earth?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yFnO2O6XPM

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One's convictions should be proportional to one's evidence. - Sam Harris

Last edited on 31 May 2011 14:04 by Marko S Show more

Re: "How far away is the Moon?" video on Youtube

Trista1988 31 May 2011 16:42

Those were some great videos. I did not know the moon was that far away from us. Probably because like he said, the pictures you see make it appear much closer. As far as how old the earth is, I did know that, but was very surprised that a lot of people said the low millions because even my sons show he watches, The Dinosaur Train, tells the little kids throughout the whole show how long ago the era was that they are travelling too. Very surprising. Than you very much for sharing.

Re: "How far away is the Moon?" video on Youtube

Marko S 31 May 2011 18:05

As far as how old the earth is, I did know that, but was very surprised that a lot of people said the low millions

I think it is like this because the human brain just isn't equipped to deal with timeframes longer than maybe tens of years or a hundred years, max. Timeframes longer than that just become incomprehensible. It is difficult to wrap your mind around, say, a thousand years, let alone millions, hundred millions and billions of years. So they tend to meld into a generic "a LONG time ago" kind of concept.

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One's convictions should be proportional to one's evidence. - Sam Harris

Re: "How far away is the Moon?" video on Youtube

JamesJJlm 31 May 2011 15:47

Phil Plait actually talked about this on his blog. Really cool stuff. He even gave an example of how far away the sun would be, and how large it would be if Earth were the size of a basketball.

Last edited on 31 May 2011 16:49 by JamesJJlm Show more