Moon Struck: The Sequel

 

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Lunar Effect on Birth

Purpose: To discover if the phase of the moon will have any influence on the date of a child’s birth.

Hypothesis: I hypothesize that more infants will be born during the days surrounding the full moon and that less children will be born during the first and third quarter lunar phases.

Materials:
pen and paper
a sample of one hundred birth dates
lunar calendars for the different years of the birth dates

Procedure:

  1. Collect and record the birth dates of one hundred volunteers.
  2. Record when each birth occurred in relation to the new moon, first quarter moon, full moon, and third quarter moon. For example, January 16, 1987 was one day after the full moon.
  3. Count and record how many births occurred during each day for the six days surrounding each main lunar phase.
  4. Study the data and form a conclusion based on the results.

Data and Observations:

In this experiment, I observed that there were no births on the day of the full moon and five on the day of the new moon. . Also, there were only eleven births on the days surrounding the full moon, while there were twenty births on the days surrounding the new moon. During the first quarter phase, ten infants were born. Nine children were born during the last quarter.

Conclusion:

I conclude that my hypothesis was incorrect. The birth rate did not rise with the full moon, but with the new moon.  Based on these results, I infer that more infants may be born during the new moon lunar phase.

See the Graph