The crescent moon hovered over the hills across the bay last night.

 

The moon was only partially visible last night because of the angle of the sun shining on it, as seen from our perspective. I originally had the information wrong, about why we only see part of the moon, and Thomas kindly corrected it. Please see his comment below and the link to a well-illustrated diagram.

Anyway, I began to think of geometric shapes and their occurrences and practical applications.

First the circle, the general shape of our planets and their moons. Round, like apple pie, chocolate cookies, and coins….

Then the partial circle, such as the crescent. I’ll come back to that.

The lumpy rest of the moon when it’s not quite full is not such an interesting shape, but maybe it has a special name. I’m not sure.

Then we have ovals, squares, rectangles (and their many variations), and triangles.

Ovals, so named because of the shape of eggs, I suppose.

Squares? Very useful for so many things; the town market place for one. Almond squares for a treat with coffee.

Rectangles. Squares that are adjusted to fit if the sides are not equal all the way around, only those across from each other. Placemats.

Triangles. For Napoleon’s hat, and in the old days, the class dunce hat  (really cruel custom)!

But somehow, I am most impressed by the crescent shape of the moon.

Crescent, or croissant, is one of my favourite shapes, especially when it comes in the form of a shrimp croissant with a cup of Wicked Thai Soup at my local lunch place.

Do you have a favourite crescent shape?