Light: Shadows and Reflections

Avni says her shadow on the school playground will be shortest around noon, and longest early in the morning and late in the evening. Lakshya says the noon shadow will be the longest, because the Sun is strongest then. Whose prediction will match what they see?

On Diwali night, a polished steel thali beside the diyas gleams brightly. Shubham says the thali is a source of light too, just like the diyas, because it is shining. Noor says the thali is not a source of light at all. Who has it right?

Ekta makes a pinhole camera from a box and points it at a tree. On its tracing-paper screen, the tree appears upside down. Ekta says this happens because light travels in straight lines: light from the top of the tree passes through the hole and lands at the bottom of the screen. Sahil says the hole is too big — with a smaller hole, the tree would appear the right way up. Whose explanation is correct?

Gunjan and Moksh are putting on a shadow-puppet show with a torch and a white wall. Gunjan wants her elephant shadow to look huge, so she moves her hands closer to the wall. Moksh says she should do the opposite and move her hands closer to the torch. Whose idea will make the shadow bigger?

Sarthak stands 2 m in front of a long mirror on a wall. He says his image is on the surface of the mirror, so it is 2 m away from him. Fiza says the image appears 2 m behind the mirror, so it is 4 m away from him. Who is right?

Walking backwards away from a mirror, Nilesh says his image stays exactly his own size — it only looks smaller from far away, the way a real person standing far off looks smaller. Hemant says the image really does shrink as you step back from a mirror — you can clearly see it getting smaller. Whose reasoning holds up?