{"id":481,"date":"2017-07-13T19:46:35","date_gmt":"2017-07-13T19:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aurorasaurudev.wpengine.com\/?p=481"},"modified":"2024-03-18T21:34:03","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T21:34:03","slug":"fidget-spinning-the-eclipse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/?p=481","title":{"rendered":"Fidget spinning the eclipse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aQLcEzU_5x4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>What do <\/b><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"http:\/\/ffffidget.com\/\"><b>fidget spinners<\/b><\/a><b>, the latest fad toy and new student favorite, have to do with the upcoming solar eclipse?<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Teachers don\u2019t despair, fidget spinners can demonstrate <\/span><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/2017\/05\/physics-of-a-fidget-spinner\/?mbid=social_twitter\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">physics<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> concepts and orbital mechanics for kinesthetic learners. The eclipse is all about gravity, and the rotation of celestial bodies. As the fidget spinner spins about its central axis, an object on the arm of the spinner (or two or three) is locked in rotation around the central object. Much like the Earth rotates around the Sun. So for that, picture a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">solar<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> fidget spinner <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">93 million miles<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from the center to the edge!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><b>We are on a giant fidget spinner, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rotating once per year, smoothly going around the Sun for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">billions<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of years in the \u201cecliptic\u201d fidget spinner plane. Sped up for galactic time, it looks just like this:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/lXhWsjZvf1ZGo\/giphy.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>Now zoom in on the Earth. It has its own fidget spinner, the Moon which rotates around the Earth!<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The arm of that extraterrestrial fidget spinner is \u201conly\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">250,000 miles<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The Moon rotates once every 27 days for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4.5 billion years<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (just a little younger than the Earth). And here\u2019s the key to understanding eclipses, the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lunar<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> fidget spinner is tilted like so, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5\u00b0 out of the ecliptic Sun-Earth plane.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 640px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-481-1\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"http:\/\/2.media.dorkly.cvcdn.com\/91\/82\/f352c35e5519389a7eb63f0638b6b975_13.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/2.media.dorkly.cvcdn.com\/91\/82\/f352c35e5519389a7eb63f0638b6b975_13.mp4\">http:\/\/2.media.dorkly.cvcdn.com\/91\/82\/f352c35e5519389a7eb63f0638b6b975_13.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p><b>So try to picture these two huge fidget spinners with different periods, size, and tilt. When they line up a total solar eclipse can be caused! <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They intersect only rarely but there is a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pattern<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to some of those intersections. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s 18 yrs ten and one third days. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More about that pattern <a href=\"https:\/\/eclipse2017.nasa.gov\/what-saros-cycle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here (Saros cycle)<\/a> and in the next post.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Finally, there\u2019s one more similarity between your average fidget spinner and celestial orbital mechanics. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gravitationally driven celestial fidget spinners go for cosmically long times, but they also have tiny deviations and wobbles, just like your fidget spinner might (look at it edge on, and you may notice some small wiggles). The Earth and the Moon are not perfect spheres, and their orbits are not perfect circles. So there\u2019s a little bit of variation in their spinning, due to minute manufacturing differences, just like that spinner you got from 7-11. \ud83d\ude09 The moon usually looks like a perfect circle, but during a solar eclipse, some of the features you see like Bailey\u2019s Beads and the \u201cdiamond ring\u201d effect are actually due to its not being a perfect sphere, but being heavily cratered. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Activity ideas:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Close your eyes and picture a huge solar fidget spinner. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Draw it. Spin it. Label the Sun and the Earth,<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Close your eyes and picture the smaller lunar fidget spinner going around the Earth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Draw it. Spin it. Be sure to have the tilt.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now put those two drawings together to illustrate the eclipse.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last, look at your fidget spinner edge on. Do you see the way it isn\u2019t perfect? <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you put a flashlight behind it, do you see those better?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Extras:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kids could use the fidget spinner during the eclipse as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpl.nasa.gov\/edu\/learn\/project\/how-to-make-a-pinhole-camera\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pinhole projector<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No fidget spinner, no problem. Try it here: <\/span><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"http:\/\/ffffidget.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">http:\/\/ffffidget.com\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fidget spinners are the latest fad toy and new student favorite, but did you know they can explain a total solar eclipse? Aurorasaurus founder Liz MacDonald explains how fidget spinners can be used to talk about physics concepts and orbital mechanics for kinesthetic learners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,29,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-hands-on-activities","category-solar-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}