Having seen firsthand that an entire astronomy class at a prestigious university can be under the impression that the Moon is only up at night, I think this is a pretty impressive performance from fourth graders.

If the universe were geocentric, wouldn't we be at the center of our galaxy, and wouldn't our galaxy be at the center of the visible universe?

Depends on what you mean by "center". In terms of what matters to us, once you get beyond the sun and the stuff around it, it's all just pretty little lights in the sky. It'll stay that way until we have a reason to care about what's going on "out there."

Papaya:

Existence isn't geometric.

If you want to torture people, ask them why the Moon has phases. Very few people know that.

P.S. No, it's not the Earth's shadow. When that happens it's called a lunar eclipse.

Please note this the Japan Times.

AOG:
And then ask them why Venus has phases (which probably even fewer know) but Jupiter does not.

Jupiter has phases, you just can't see them from Earth.

But you would be able to if the Universe was geocentric.

Unless, of course, OJ is using that word in such a way as to drain it of all meaning.

AOG:
You know, I always wondered why people made such a big deal about lunar eclipses when we have one once a month. But that's apparently incorrect. So what does cause the phases of the moon? The Trilateral Commission? I knew it!

I don't recall that even basic astronomy is taught in American schools up to and including the Fourth Grade. I'm guessing that the article's authors surveyed a large number of grades and found one that was ignorant of the facts and then used that as the lede.

Earth's moon has two really strange properties:

It's proportionately much too large, and it's almost exactly the same apparent size as the sun.

There's something funny going on there.

Only 40%? With all the Self-Esteem Training you get in schools, I'm surprised it isn't higher. Not only does the sun revolve around Earth, it revolves around Me Me Me Me Me.

And for Mike Earl:
>Earth's moon has two really strange properties:
>
>It's proportionately much too large, and it's
>almost exactly the same apparent size as the
>sun.
>
>There's something funny going on there.

And I'm going to pre-empt OJ with the explanation "Never mind 'Intelligent Design', it's PROOF of Six-Day Creationism!"

Why can't existence be geometric? In some of the spaces studied by mathematicians every point in the interior of a sphere is a center.

Mr. Earl;

The rough equivalence of the apparent sizes of the Moon and Sun is a product of when we observe it. 50 millions years ago it was much larger, 50 million years from now it will be much smaller.

Mr. watson;

As for Venerian and Jovian phases, people don't see those every day as they do lunar phases so I think that question is a bit more obscure. I must object that Jupiter does have phases when seen from Earth, just very slightly. Similarly, Venus doesn't have an Earth observable complete phase cycle (trying seeing a "full" Venus). But I suppose you mean "a complete cycle ignoring the Sun". That's so pedantic!

Governor Breck;

I put that in because in personal experience, that's the most common answer.

All;

Here is a cool animated GIF of the lunar phases. Note that you can see the lunar libation.

AOG:

Actually, I knew that. But if the Earth is 4 billion years old, isn't the fact that we happen to live in the million-year window where the moon looks the same size as the sun an odd coincidence?

I thought the weird thing about the Moon is that it's not actually a moon.

As in "double planet"?

Or in the "consolidated collision debris" explanation of its origin?

As in double planet. Is being consolidated debris inconsistent with being a moon?