Approximately how many days does it take for the moon to go through a complete cycle of its phases?(1 point)
Responses
24 hours
24 hours
45 days
45 days
10 days
10 days
29 days
29 days
The correct answer is 29 days.
The correct answer is 29 days.
The correct answer is 29 days. The moon goes through a complete cycle of its phases, which is also known as a lunar month, in about 29 days.
To arrive at this answer, you can either rely on general knowledge or use some basic information about the moon's phases. Here's how you can do it:
1. Understand the phases of the moon: The moon goes through different phases as it orbits around the Earth. The cycle starts with the new moon, followed by the waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, and waning crescent.
2. Count the number of phases: In a complete lunar cycle, there are eight distinct phases, as mentioned above.
3. Determine the duration of each phase: On average, each phase lasts for approximately 3.7 days. Since there are eight phases in a cycle, you can multiply the duration of each phase (3.7 days) by the total number of phases (8), which gives you approximately 29.6 days.
4. Round off the answer: Since it's not possible to have fractional days in a lunar cycle, you can round off the answer to the nearest whole number, which is 30.
However, please note that the actual duration of a lunar month is about 29.5 days. Different sources may provide slightly different numbers due to variations in the moon's orbit and the exact duration of each phase.