That the Moon orbits Earth is one of the first and most basic facts most people learn about physics and astronomy. And it’s certainly intuitive enough: Earth’s only natural satellite moves across our sky each night. But, as this short from the YouTube series MinutePhysics details, if you use the Sun as your frame of reference, the truth becomes much more complicated. Explained via a series of nifty whiteboard-style animations, the video uses the Moon’s trajectory through the cosmos to explore broader, perhaps counterintuitive truths about orbital mechanics.
To change the way you see the Moon, view it from the Sun’s perspective
Video by MinutePhysics
7 November 2024
videoMusic
Watch as the rhythms of traffic create a mesmerising score
2 minutes
videoHistory of technology
The Americas’ oldest book is an intricate work of Maya astronomy
9 minutes
videoComplexity
A radical reimagining of physics puts information at its centre
13 minutes
videoCosmology
Are observers fundamental to physics, or simply byproducts of it?
10 minutes
videoAstronomy
Visualisations explore what the deep future holds for our night sky
6 minutes
videoMathematics
After centuries of trying, we’ve yet to arrive at a perfect way to map colour
20 minutes
