Why we can see shadows at night?
Listing Details
Concepts
light;shadow
Time needed
- < 30 minutes
Age
3-5
Setting
Outdoors
Materials Needed
-
A dark area with a light source (e.g., the moon, a street light, an outdoor building light, car lights, etc.)
Doing the activity!
Safety: Use caution when walking in dark places.
Go for a walk after dusk to search for shadows.
When each shadow is found, identify the object that is making the shadow.
Investigate more!
Follow the walk with a search for shadows inside your home. Do shadows change when the light source changes?
Take the same walk during the daytime. Are the shadows the same? What happens on a cloudy day?
What's happening?
To see a shadow, there must be a source of light and an object.
Sources of light may be natural (sunlight, moonlight) or artificial (incandescent, fluorescent or halogen lighting, etc.)
When an object blocks the beam of light shining on it, a shadow appears.
The Sun is the major source of light for the Earth. As the Sun shines on the Earth, a shadow is cast. This shadowed area is the darkness that we experience at night.
As the Earth rotates on its axis, different areas of light and dark (day and night) are created.
