Shadows

Light and shadows go together, and play an important role in how we perceive the world.

The branch of science and technology that studies light is called optics.  Optics investigations can reveal important properties of light.  An understanding of the properties of light and of materials can be applied to control light in many situations.  The most basic fact of optics is that light travels in a straight line in a uniform medium. This leads directly to the concepts of shadows, the subject of this unit.

	Why do you have a shadow?

Main pages in this section:

Section	Estimated time required
Exploring shadows	30 minutes
Some shadows are sharp and some are fuzzy	30 minutes
Making a shadow of a certain size	60 minutes
About light, and about shadows	25 minutes
Warning: don't look a the sun!	5 minutes
Discussion of the section on shadows	60 minutes

Other pages relevant to this section:
Why study shadows?
How tall is the flagpole?
Using shadow activities in the classroom
Classroom implementation of these activities
More activities with shadows

Next section: diffraction gratings