Solar Eclipse Maths and the Cosmic Coincidence of the Saros Cycle

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Published on March 21, 2015 3:36:53 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieUvzy6rnnw

Duration: 14:29

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There was a solar eclipse on the 20 March 2015 and so I thought I'd make a quick video of the mathematics behind predicting eclipses. I now regret that decision.

EDIT: I over-simplified the elliptical orbit of the moon but not putting the Earth at one of the foci, which messes with the closest and nearest points at 3:40. Elliptical orbits are not that simple.

NASA pages on the moon's orbit and the Saros cycle:
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhelp/moonorbit.html
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsaros/SEsaros.html

Photograph of the total eclipse is copyright Anthony Ayiomamitis and used with his kind permission.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ayiomamitis/4797792174/

The paper on the long-term instabilities of planetary orbits is here:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v459/n7248/full/nature08096.html

Fred Espenak is the eclipse dude:
http://www.mreclipse.com/MrEclipse.html

Music by Howard Carter
Design by Simon Wright

MATT PARKER: Stand-up Mathematician
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