A Conversation for Total Solar Eclipses
At what timke will we no longer be able to see total solar eclipses?
AgProv2 Started conversation Apr 1, 2007
Hmmm... earth receding from the moon at a rate of half an inch per year.
In every thousand years that's another 41 feet 4 inches, or 124 feet every 3,000 years... how long will it be before we no longer see eclipses as we do now...
The Moon is currently 250,000 miles from Earth or thenabouts (that's the figure I recall from Apollo days, anyway).
Therefore at the rate of 124 feet per 3,000 years, that's 41 yards, it's going to take 150,000 years for the moon to recede by one full mile (assuming 1760 yards to the mile) That's 1.5 million years for the Moon to recede by ten miles, fifteen million for it to recede by 150.
So even then we're still likely to see total solar eclipses. (not up to advanced trigonometry and relative size calculations, but I don't see 250,150 miles as being THAT significant? Maybe Bailey's Beads will be that bit brighter...))
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At what timke will we no longer be able to see total solar eclipses?
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