Commentary: Total solar eclipse makes a Central Indiana trip ideal in '24
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Star Press received the following commentary about the 2024 total solar eclipse.
MUNCIE, Ind. – You must see the total solar eclipse. You must see it in totality, the only way to see it with the naked eye. Any partial eclipse, even 99% covered, is not enough. If you can make it to Indiana on April 8, 2024, then you’re in luck. On this date, a solar eclipse will cross the US. The path of totality, where the Sun is entirely covered by the moon, will cut right through the heart of Indiana, sporting a modest 70 mile-wide shadow like a sash across our country.
Remarkably, this spectacle is not a necessity but rather an astronomical coincidence that has confounded and inspired humanity for ages. The proportion of the distance and diameter of the Sun exactly matches that of the moon, making for a perfect cover. It’s like holding a marble in front of a light at a distance and moving it back and forth until the marble perfectly covers the light.
The last opportunity for anyone within a day’s drive from Indiana to see a solar eclipse was in August of 2017. The path of totality missed Indiana, passing through Tennessee instead. Eager to see our first solar eclipse, my wife and I drove from Lafayette, IN to Nashville, TN. Some friends left the same town for Nashville, IN, saving a good three and a half hours of dense traffic and the need to spend the night away. The reasoning was that the extra time would only increase the solar coverage from 98%, near totality, to 100%. How much of a difference could 2% make anyway?
As a math professor, one of the most common mistakes I see students make is to assume nonlinear things are linear. The square root of x squared plus y squared erroneously simplifies to x plus y. But the square root of 4 plus 9, which is the square root of 13, is not 2 plus 3! This entirely forgivable mistake, also might lead one to think that 2% is negligible. But even looking directly at a 98% covered Sun could lead to permanent eye damage. To reiterate, without proper eye-protection, anything short of totality is immensely dangerous to view. It is only in totality that, for a fleeting three and a half minutes, one can view the spectacle with the naked eye.
Turn on two lamps of equal power then turn one off. Does the room appear half as dark? The concept of linearity would imply so. Half as much light makes things half as bright. But our sense of illumination is not linear in behavior. One well known law, known as the Weber-Fechner law, says our perception of light increases logarithmically with illumination, another says the relation is a power law. While your recollection of algebra might not be ready gather what these terms mean, the point is that they behave quite different from linearity. This is likely due to that vast difference in luminosity between a near moonless night and a bright sunny day. Our eyes must be able to see in a vast spectrum of luminosity. For another example, try navigating an unknown room full of furniture, well-lit, then half-lit, then with a very dim light. Finally turn off all of the lights. The difference is clear.
Nature can tell as well. In totality, the temperature drops, the animals behave strange, and you are afforded a unique chance to see a strange luminesce not to be found elsewhere on earth, emanating from the intensely hot corona of the Sun.
Finally, you have to actually come and see it for yourself. Take a picture of the moon on your phone then look at it with your eyes. What you see in pictures does not compare to what you see with your eyes. Now magnify this difference by an order of magnitude and you’ll began to see what I’m saying. Come to Indiana. I know a lot of viewing parties and festivities will be taking place here in Muncie. See what I’m so excited about. It will be the experience of a lifetime.
Michael R. Pilla, PhD, is assistant teaching professor of mathematics at Ball State University. He received his doctorate in mathematics from Purdue University in 2020 and is an enthusiastic researcher, writer, and teacher.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Total solar eclipse makes a Central Indiana trip ideal in '24
