From the Earth to the Moon and Back – Gravitation in the Earth-Moon system

How does the Moon influence the Earth – and the other way round?

What would happen if the Moon was so much closer to the Earth – or further away?

And why do we see the Moon’s shadow so rarely?

The worksheet “From the Earth to the Moon and Back – Gravitation in the Earth-Moon system” and its app lets pupils experiment with the distance between the Earth and the Moon. The pupils’ smartphones become the Moon so they can experiment from their “position in space” what would happen if they came closer to Earth – both on the Earth and the Moon. The Moon shadow simulation and the video of the Moon from space help to understand why Solar and Lunar eclipses are so rare and give an understanding of the vast distances in space.

Download the Columbus Eye app free of charge in the Google Play Store (use part “Earth-Moon system”)

The pupils are to…

• realise the effects of differential gravitation,

• realise interactions in the earth-moon force system,

• chose physical values reasonably and deductively process them in a hypothesis,

• perform a thought experiment.

The zip file (2 MB) contains the work sheet with the Augmented Reality markers, teaching materials with lesson plans and master solutions, the marker image “Earth”, and additional information on the physical, mathematical and geographical background.

Download working sheet