Shadow From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For other uses, see Shadow

(disambiguation). The shadow cast by an old street lamp Park fence on the snow surface A shadow is an area where direct light from a light source cannot reach due to o bstruction by an object. It occupies all of the space behind an opaque object wi th light in front of it. The cross section of a shadow is a two-dimensional silh ouette, or reverse projection of the object blocking the light. The sun causes m any objects to have shadows and at certain times of the day, when the sun is at certain heights, the lengths of shadows change. An astronomical object casts human-visible shadows when its apparent magnitude i s equal or lower than -4.[1] Currently the only astronomical objects able to pro duce visible shadows on Earth are the sun, the moon and, in the right conditions , Venus or Jupiter.[2] Contents 1 Variation with time 2 Non-point source 3 Shadow propagation speed 4 Color of shadow on Earth 5 In photography 6 Fog shadows 7 Other notes 8 Mythological connotations 9 Heraldry 10 See also 11 References 12 External links Variation with time Shadow length when caused by the sun changes dramatically throughout the day. Th e length of a shadow cast on the ground is proportional to the cotangent of the sun's elevation angle its angle ? relative to the horizon. Near sunrise and sunset , when ? = 0 and cot(?) is infinite, shadows can be extremely long. If the sun pa sses directly overhead, then ? = 90, cot(?)=0, and shadows are cast directly unde rneath objects. Non-point source Umbra, penumbra and antumbra For a non-point source of light, the shadow is divided into the umbra and penumb ra. The wider the light source, the more blurred the shadow. If two penumbras ov erlap, the shadows appear to attract and merge. This is known as the Shadow Blis ter Effect. If there are multiple light sources there are multiple shadows, with overlapping parts darker, or a combination of colors. For a person or object touching the s urface, like a person standing on the ground, or a pole in the ground, these con verge at the point of touch.