Question

Why are shadows at noon shorter than in the morning or the evening?

Answer 1

Hint: We are asked why shadows are shorter than those in the morning and evening. We can start to answer this question by defining what a shadow is. We can then move onto defining what determines the shape and size of the shadow. This will lead us to our required answer.

Complete answer:
Let us start to answer this question by defining shadows. Shadow is a dark spot which is formed in the shape of an object that is kept in front of a light source. When an opaque object is kept in front of a light source, it does not allow light to pass through and hence a shadow is formed.

At noon, the sun, which is the light source in the question, is directly over our heads. Since the sun is directly on top of our head, the sun rays fall directly on our head and fall vertically on it. Whereas in the morning or in the evening the sunlight falls at an angle or inclined position. This causes the shadows to be longer.

Hence, shadows in the noon are shorter because it falls vertically on the object or the person.

Note: Shadows used to be one of the main modes of calculating time in the days when clocks and timepieces were not invented. We can see that when it is morning, the shadow falls in a particular way and as time proceeds, the shadow starts to move to the opposite time and at noon, it is the smallest. Using this logic people were able to calculate the time.