Moon Musing

It’s weird, how we talk about the moon. We say it’s “first quarter” when half the circle is full of light. Then when it’s totally full of light, we say it’s a “full moon.”

Why do we have this contradiction? If we say half is actually quarter, why don’t we also say that full is half?

Or if we say that full is full, why don’t we call the half moon half?

Then again, these moon phases are all moot, since the moon is a sphere, and from out in space, half of the moon is always lit up (except during a lunar eclipse), so it’s always a half lit moon.

Why do we do this? Why do we call our always-half moon a quarter and a full, but never really half?

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