Half-lit Moon tabletop
20 minutes · A small ball · A low-power flashlight · Paper · An adult helper
Your investigation
- Use a low-power flashlight as a pretend Sun indoors. Keep its beam away from eyes.
- Place a ball on a table. Stand at different positions around it, leaving the lamp in the same place.
- Sketch how much of the ball’s lit half you can see from four positions. Do not use your head to block the lamp.
- Label the sketch “a lighting model; sizes and distances not to scale.”
Think, draw, explain
Has the ball changed shape?
Does the lamp illuminate only the little crescent you can see?
Grown-up guide & possible answers
- The ball keeps its shape. Your viewing direction changes how much of its illuminated half is visible.
- The lamp still lights roughly half the ball. Ordinary lunar phases come from changing viewing geometry, not Earth’s shadow.