1. History, Science, and the Solar Eclipse

2. What is a solar eclipse?
How do you know that’s what’s happening?

3. History
People around the world, and through time, have come up with many tales to explain the sun's disappearance.

4. Vikings (~790 – 1066)
The Vikings saw a pair of sky wolves chasing the sun or the moon. When one of the wolves caught either of the shining orbs, an eclipse would result.

5. Vietnam
In Vietnam folklore, it is thought that a frog or a toad eats the moon or the sun.

6. The Inuit
The Kwakiutl tribe on the western coast of Canada believe that the mouth of heaven consumes the sun or the moon during an eclipse.

7. Korea
Korean eclipse mythology involves fire dogs that try to steal the sun or the moon, said Krupp. On orders from a king, the mythical canines try their best to capture the fiery sun or the ice-cold moon. They always fail, but whenever they bite either orb, an eclipse results.

8. India
The Hindu demon Rahu disguised himself as a god in order to steal a taste of an elixir that grants immortality. The sun and moon see what Rahu is up to, and they report his crime to the god Vishnu. Vishnu slices off his head before the elixir can slide past his throat. As a consequence, Rahu's head turns immortal, but his body dies. The demon's head continues to move through the sky, chasing the sun and the moon out of hatred. Every now and then he catches them and swallows them. But since Rahu has no throat, the sun and the moon fall out of the bottom of his head.

9. The Batammaliba
In a myth of the Batammaliba people of Togo and Benin in Africa, the sun and the moon are fighting during an eclipse. The people encourage the sun and the moon to stop fighting. They see it as a time of coming together and resolving old feuds and anger.

10. The Navajo
The Navajo regard the cosmic order of the universe as being all about balance. Something like an eclipse is just part of nature's law. You pause to acknowledge that that time is special, and you reflect on the cosmic order. Some Navajo still observe traditions associated with an eclipse by staying inside with their family, singing special songs, and refraining from eating, drinking, or sleeping.

11. Chinese
In Chinese legend, two royal astrologers were tasked with studying the heavens for omens. It was thought that eclipses were a dragon swallowing the sun and only through the actions of man – including archers firing in the direction of the sun and drummers beating their instruments – could it be scared off. When an eclipse escaped the astrologers’ projections, preventing the dragon-deterring rituals from taking place, the pair was beheaded. However, the lasting effect was subsequent Chinese astrologers taking the issue to heart and calculating eclipse events in greater detail than many cultures had before them.

12. Why?
Why did all of these groups come up with such fantastical explanations of how eclipses occur?

13. How?
How do eclipses actually occur?

14. How do eclipses actually occur?

15. How?

16. How do we know?
Science!!!
Observable
Testable
Repeatable

17. No!!!! So they are not science. How do we know?
All scientific claims must be based on evidence. Are any of the myths about the eclipse based on evidence?
No!!!!
So they are not science.

18. How do we know?
All scientific claims must be based on evidence. Is our present understanding about the eclipse based on evidence?
Yes!!!!
Observation, led to experimentation, led to evidence, led to conclusions.