Avni says her shadow on the school playground will be shortest around noon, and longest early in…
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?
Who do you think is right? Pick one.
The answer: Avni is right, the higher the Sun, the shorter the shadow
Why
Lakshya is correct that the noon Sun feels the strongest — but the length of a shadow doesn't depend on how strong the light is; it depends on the direction the light comes from. A shadow is the region behind you where your body blocks light travelling in straight lines. Early in the morning the Sun is low near the horizon, its rays arrive almost sideways, and your body blocks them over a long stretch of ground, so the shadow is long. Around noon the Sun is high in the sky, the rays come down steeply, and your body blocks only a small patch near your feet, so the shadow is short. Test: in a dark room, shine a torch at a pencil standing upright, first from low down at the side and then from high above — the low torch casts a long shadow and the high one a short shadow, without the torch getting any brighter. Avni is right: the noon shadow is the shortest because the Sun is highest in the sky then.
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