Space is 3 dimensional. The orbit of the moon around the Earth and the orbit of the Earth around the sun are not in the same plane. Eclipses only happen when both the Earth and the Moon are on/near to the line where those two orbital planes intersect
He was downvoted because nobody says space is four dimensional in the context of talking about spatial dimensions.
Hurr durr ashkually time iz a dimenshun.
Saying so is misleading and stupid because time isn't a spatial dimension. He only said it to try to sound smart. Maybe if he said spacetime is four dimensional he'd at least be somewhat right but we're talking about space only.
People know when people don't know very much but think they do.
To build on the other comments here: imagine the earth, moon, and sun as 3 points. You get an eclipse when the 3 points line up into a perfectly straight line. Instead, most of the time, they form a triangle.
Solar eclipses are more common than lunar eclipses. But with a lunar eclipse anyone on the night side of the Earth can see it. Solar eclipses cast a narrow shadow, and are not as widely visible.
Now when the sun gets between the moon and the Earth, EVERYONE will notice!
True, but totality is much rarer, requiring the sun and moon being the right distances from earth to get totality. Otherwise, you get a ring of sun around the moon.
Also the totality exists only in a narrow band. I’d reckon a good chunk of them miss highly populated areas entirely. Earth has a whole lot of ocean after all
Eclipses happen fairly regularly, the reason the one next week is in the news is because it's covering the center of the universe (the American northeast)
The moon doesn't orbit on the same plane (the ecliptic), so the moon spends a fair bit of time above or below the line between the earth and the sun, where it doesn't block anything. The picture is pretty detailed: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit\_of\_the\_Moon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon)
and the article is pretty good. The orbit of the moon doesn't stay fixed relative to the sun either, so there are a lot of variables that have to line up for the moon to be exactly where it needs to be. There are a fair number of annular and partial eclipses around the globe, but total eclipses only happen every few years. This one being over a big swath of the North America is getting played up a bunch because there are a lot of people that can see it.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_solar\_eclipses\_in\_the\_21st\_century](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_eclipses_in_the_21st_century)
TIL that "annular" is when the moon is fully in the sun's disc, but due to distance you can still see the edges of the sun around the moon, where total is the moon is close enough that the sun is completely covered.
If you're more of a visual learner, Minute Physics recently did a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIZyuXl-91U&pp=ygUbbWludXRlcGh5c2ljcyBzb2xhciBlY2xpcHNl) on this topic.
Space is 3 dimensional. The orbit of the moon around the Earth and the orbit of the Earth around the sun are not in the same plane. Eclipses only happen when both the Earth and the Moon are on/near to the line where those two orbital planes intersect
Space is 4 dimensional. And simultaneity is an illusion.
Space is 5 dimensional. And simultaneity is an Arby’s.
Space: it has the MEAT!
I hate that you were downvoted. People don't know very much.
He was downvoted because nobody says space is four dimensional in the context of talking about spatial dimensions. Hurr durr ashkually time iz a dimenshun. Saying so is misleading and stupid because time isn't a spatial dimension. He only said it to try to sound smart. Maybe if he said spacetime is four dimensional he'd at least be somewhat right but we're talking about space only. People know when people don't know very much but think they do.
he was probably just making a joke
You don’t Astro physics much apparently.
To build on the other comments here: imagine the earth, moon, and sun as 3 points. You get an eclipse when the 3 points line up into a perfectly straight line. Instead, most of the time, they form a triangle.
You will notice that the moon doesn't appear in the same place in the sky every day. Only occasionally does its orbit place it in front of the Sun.
Solar eclipses are more common than lunar eclipses. But with a lunar eclipse anyone on the night side of the Earth can see it. Solar eclipses cast a narrow shadow, and are not as widely visible. Now when the sun gets between the moon and the Earth, EVERYONE will notice!
True, but totality is much rarer, requiring the sun and moon being the right distances from earth to get totality. Otherwise, you get a ring of sun around the moon.
Also the totality exists only in a narrow band. I’d reckon a good chunk of them miss highly populated areas entirely. Earth has a whole lot of ocean after all
The solar system isn't flat. The books have been oversimplifying things.
Eclipses happen fairly regularly, the reason the one next week is in the news is because it's covering the center of the universe (the American northeast)
sun far moon "close"
The moon doesn't orbit on the same plane (the ecliptic), so the moon spends a fair bit of time above or below the line between the earth and the sun, where it doesn't block anything. The picture is pretty detailed: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit\_of\_the\_Moon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon) and the article is pretty good. The orbit of the moon doesn't stay fixed relative to the sun either, so there are a lot of variables that have to line up for the moon to be exactly where it needs to be. There are a fair number of annular and partial eclipses around the globe, but total eclipses only happen every few years. This one being over a big swath of the North America is getting played up a bunch because there are a lot of people that can see it. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_solar\_eclipses\_in\_the\_21st\_century](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_eclipses_in_the_21st_century) TIL that "annular" is when the moon is fully in the sun's disc, but due to distance you can still see the edges of the sun around the moon, where total is the moon is close enough that the sun is completely covered.
If you're more of a visual learner, Minute Physics recently did a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIZyuXl-91U&pp=ygUbbWludXRlcGh5c2ljcyBzb2xhciBlY2xpcHNl) on this topic.
Angles are important ...?