Paragraph on “Waxing and Waning Of the Moon” complete paragraph for Class 9, Class 10, Class 11 and Class 12

Waxing and Waning Of the Moon

If we watch the Moon for a month, we would see that it keeps changing it’s  shape, sometimes it is a full circle and then on occasions it is just a semi-circle, The changing of in the Moon’s shape is called waxing and waning, The light, that we get from the Moon at night is not it’s own, it is in  fact, acting only us a reflector of the Sun’s light. When the moon is rotating on axis only half of it’s hemisphere is exposed to the Sun and the other half is in darkness. The Moon rotates on its axis at almost the same speed at which it, revolves around the Earth. As the Moon revolves around the Earth we see, at different angles, various portions of it’s hemisphere which is exposed to the Sun and the dark side is not visible to us, this is what gives us the feeling that the Moon is changing it’s size and shape. An increase in the size of the Moon’s illuminated surface is termed as waxing and a reduction in its size is called waning, as shown in the illustration. There are nights when the Moon is not visible at all, these are New Moon nights, the nights when it can be seen as a full circle are called Full Moon nights. On a Full Moon night the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon, though not at an angle to cause an eclipse, that is why we are able to see the entire hemisphere of the Moon reflecting the Sun’s rays. On a New Moon night we see the dark hemisphere of the Moon since the other side is facing the Sun. One complete cycle of the Moon’s waxing and waning takes 29.5 days.