Thursday, November 29, 2012
Moon Journal Activity
Images of your moon journal data are in your PHSC_Share file at DropBox.
You will comment on the following:
How do we determine the length of the moon cycle using the data that we have?
Come up with a procedure.
Due: Monday, December 3, 2012 at noon.
Some interesting sites on the moon:
http://www.winkatthemoonnight.com/
http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/lunar-lander
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My suggestion is that we count the days it takes for one moon phase to the next time that phase appears.We should do this for as many "cycles" that we see, then take the average. Then we'll know the average number a days for a moon to complete it's cycle.
ReplyDeleteFirst I would make sure I can read the data correctly and then to determine the length of the moon cycle I would count the days from new moon to new moon or full moon to full moon.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to try to determine the length of the moon cycle based on our data that we collected, I would first group the moons by the date like we did. I would then count the days from the phases that I say (full moon to full moon, new moon to new moon, half moon to half moon, etc). After that I would probably average those number of days together. Since our data will not be completely accurate, I feel like an average of everyone's data would give me the closest number of days it takes the moon to cycle through its phases.
ReplyDeleteIn order to read the data correctly, I think we first need to make all the data the same way. Have those students who colored the moon and those students who left the moon unshaded come up with a standard so all the data looks the same and is readable. Next I would count from phase to phase. I would count full moon to full moon, new moon to new moon, crescent to crescent. Hopefully this will allow us to find the average number of days of the moon's cycle.
DeleteI think a lot of factors would have to be taken into place before our data could be used to somewhat accurately make a prediction for the moon cycle. First, I think the season has to be taken into account. I'm sure how it works, but I've always learned that the cycle of the moon depends on the time of the years, which predicts the seasons, which leads us to the fact that the earth is rotating on its axis, which is how we get the moon cycles in the first place. I think our data would also have to be accurately depicted, so students would need to go back and transfer their data to a standard depiction in order to make the process of making predictions easier. Like others have said, and we stated in class, I believe that counting from the different stages, from full moon to full moon (and so on and so on) would allow us to most accurately depict the cycle of the moon that we were watching, as well as help us to predict future cycles of the moon.
ReplyDeleteIn order to determine the number of days that it takes for the moon to complete a cycle, I think we should use our data and find the average days between cycles. At first, I thought that the only way to do this was to count the days from one full moon to the other. Now, I am convinced that it would also be helpful to count from one crescent to another, or from one new moon to the other (either way we will be seeing the moon in its full cycle).
ReplyDeleteBecause our data is so different, I think the first thing we should do is come up with a more consistent way of viewing the data. As scientists, it is unethical to change our data, so we should all label our findings in terms of the moon and the moon shadow (I think that's what it's called).
I believe that we should count the number of days from new moon to new moon for each individual. We can then collect everybody's numbers between their two new moon's. We can then add up our data and take the average to get the most reasonable about of days for a moon cycle.
ReplyDeleteWe would also have to realize that this may only be the average amount of days for the moon cycle between October and November, since the moon cycle may change month to month. (We don't have enough data to determine the answer)
Alexis, when I read this at first I thought it was interesting to look at the data this way. I relooked again tonight and I still think that this is one of the best responses.
DeleteI think we could look at each column (or date) individually. We could compare the moons on each and then select the most common one for each date. We then could observe the length of days between full moons, new moons, and crescents.We could look at the average length between each phase to determine the duration of the moon cycles.
ReplyDeleteIn order to calculate the length of the moon cycles, I would gather all data taken and group them into their dates taken (as we did in class). I would observe the data as a whole and point out the dates where the data shows a full moon or a new moon. From this point, I would count the days between each full moon spotted and also the days between each new moon. This would show me an average moon cycle. However, if I would like it to be more accurate, I would look at each classmate's data and average these amounts of days with the whole class to determine the length of a moon cycle.
ReplyDeleteTo have appropriate data collection we need to determine before people draw their moons out which side of the moon should or should not be shaded. That was very confusing. Second, everyone needs to be able to explain what they saw on the day they drew the picture. Some pictures were very hard to see if they were full or not. Then at that point we must draw upon, with the best of our abilities, our prior knowledge of the moon cycle. When we have determined what we know, from the correct side of the moon being shaded, what the person thought they saw on that night being told, and the prior knowledge of the moon cycle being stated, we can come up with a procedure to figure out the moon cycle on our own. The best way to determine the moon cycle would be from the full moon to full moon cycle because it is hard to know when new moon occurs because some nights can be cloudy during the same time so we could miss the full moon. We can average the drawings made of the full moon on days and see which day most people saw it on and then count from there to the next highest full moon sighting average.
ReplyDeleteWhen going back through the data I think we had a few factors that made it difficult to claim whether or not we had accurate data. I think first off we needed to all be looking at the moon at the same time. I think timing is everything and it could be covered by a cloud or tree at one point and fully glowing in the next. Secondly, I think we needed to all be at the same place because different locations can cause for different views. Some people can be hindered by other objects and they don't get the full view. We know we can calculate the cycle from starting at one full moon and ending on the next. If I had to change this I would gather all the moons and put them on their different dates as we did in class. I would then observe from what point did a full moon start and go through it's cycle to the beginning of another. With our data we for each individual date I think we should pick the moon phase that was chosen the most by the students. Have one photo and collect the data looking from those chosen moon phases.
ReplyDeleteI think we were on the right track at the end of class last Tuesday. Even though not everybody's data matched up like we were hoping, that is a common flaw in science. Data from different sources can never be exact. I thought looking at the data in cycles was our best beat. Counting the days and taking observations of our data from full moon to full moon gave us a better idea of what everyone was experiencing. We could also sit down and look through everyone's data individually; thus seeing what he.she saw and comparing it to our own. If our results still weren't coming back as accurate as we thought, doing the over experiment over and correcting our mistakes would always be an option. I do believe though that we could form a hypothesis based off our current observations by taking a like at the cycle like I mentioned before.
ReplyDeleteI believe in order to determine the length of the moon cycle using the data we have, we need to look at the pictures and establish where the full moon is. Once we have established that we can then proceed to count the days until the next full moon. If our data does not contain two full moons then we can estimate how many days are remaining by looking at the pictures and seeing where the moon is at in the phases. I do believe that places the moon pictures out day by day was a great way to begin and organize our data.
ReplyDeleteI would look at the journal entries we have for each day and if the majority of them agree on a certain phase, we should use that one, in a sense taking an "average" of the images. The most commonly drawn day for the beginning and end will be where we start and begin.
ReplyDeleteThe exercise assumes that we do not have the journal (data logbook) entries; that the data we have is what "scientists" deposited into the data bank.
DeleteI think we first need to decide which month we have the most data points for. From there, we would take averages of a sort - we could draw each image on top of one another and decide what the moon might have looked like. After this we would pick a day, the 1st, the 2nd, any date and find the next time that the 'moon average' looked the same.
ReplyDeleteI believe that we need to look at our data as a whole and then determine which region of the moon was shaded based on the person who drew the data, as in make the data more unified. Then we should look at the data as a whole decide one unified starting point, whether it be a half, or full moon. Then we count the number of days until the next full or half moon.
ReplyDeleteThis exercise assumes that you do not have this information; that you are working with what you have. What do you do with the data that you do have?
DeleteAfter looking at the drawings of everyone’s moon phases, the best way to determine the length of the moon cycle would be to add up the days from the first full moon to the next full moon and do the same thing from there to the third full moon. After that average the two numbers together; this will give you a rough estimate of the length of the moon cycle with our data. To be more exact I would get more data.
ReplyDelete