Quote (known954 @ Oct 11 2013 10:21pm)
the moon is exactly 1/400th of the size of the sun
and its orbit occurs at a distance of exactly 1/400th the distance between the earth and the sun.
(this causes total eclipses, a unique phenomenon as far as we know)
the earth is 3.66 times the size of the moon, and takes 366 days to orbit the sun
the moon takes 27.322 days to orbit the earth, which creates a very neat 10,000 days to complete 366 orbits
say you believe those things are just coincidences, that they're just a fluke
It really is a fluke right now. An accident of our existence at
this time instead of a hundred million years one way or the other. The moon is constantly moving away from the earth (at a slow rate). At some point in the future we will no longer be able to have total solar eclipses because the moon will be too far away to completely eclipse the sun.