Ranking Task: Sidereal and Synodic Periods

Part A

Each item following represents an amount of time. Recall from your reading that "sidereal" refers to events that are timed with respect to the distant stars, and "synodic" refers to special alignments of astronomical bodies, such as the Earth, Moon, and Sun. Rank the items from left to right in order of the amount of time they represent, from shortest time to longest time. If two items represent equal amounts of time, show this equality by dragging one on top of the other.

Shortest Time

- sidereal day AND one rotation of Earth on its axis SAME

- solar day

- sidereal month AND one Moon orbit around Earth SAME

- synodic month AND one full cycle of moon phases SAME

Longest Time

Sidereal Time is the shortest time of earth and Synodic time is longest time of the sun.

Explanation:

shortest to the longest time.

Sidereal day and one rotation of the earth on its axis. Sidereal month and one full orbit around the earth. Synodic month and one full cycle of the moon. Solar day i. e Earth rotation on its axis so that the sun appears same on the sky.

As sideral refers to the events that occur on the same day with 23 hours 56 minutes 4.091 sec, and synodic day refers to the 24 hours and 2.5 ms aligned to astronomical bodies. Each synodic day the gradual motion is one degree eastwards. (360 degrees per year.)

The solar day is just one complete solar day. Time is calculated based on sun positioning of the solar clock i. e 24 hr format and the mean solar time is 12 hours.

Solar time does include the moon phases as this phenomenon is limited to the sidereal rotation of the earth on its axis. Aphelion and Perihelion are caused by the earth's rotational effects towards the sun being exposed at the time of day.