why are there "phases" of the moon???

i just looked at the moon, coming home, and i thought of this question... why are there "phases" of the moon?

i may have learned it in kindergarten, but i forgot...

what is blocking the moon so that we see only half of it???

Nothing is blocking it. It's just the Sun shinning from another angle.

[Edited on 29-3-2004 by TPL]

The moon turning around it's axis.

maybe cause its orbitting the Earth

Nothing is blocking it. It's just the Sun shinning from another angle. One side of the Moon always faces us, but since it rotates around the Earth. One side never constantly faces the Sun.

I hope that made some sort of sence

And then, of course, there is the ever-popular web searach:
csep10.phys.utk.edu...
The Moon appears to go through a complete set of phases as viewed from the Earth because of its motion around the Earth, as illustrated in the following figure.
external image

as the moon rotates around its orbital path the sunlight coming from the sun will strike it at different angles creating the phases of the moon. as for why we always see the same side of the moon, that is because the moon's rotational and orbital period are the same (27.3 days) cancelling out a visible rotational effect.

By the way guys, try to avoid asking really basic questions in here. When you can find much more (and faster) information by just using google.