Why are shadows so long in the evening?

Picture a warm evening walk with your family. You feel the soft sun on your back. Now look down at the path. Your shadow stretches far ahead of you, with long, long legs!

Your shadow copies every step you take. But it looks much taller than you are. Why are shadows so long in the evening? Let's find out together.

A shadow starts with the sun's light. Sunlight shines in straight lines all the way to the ground. Your body stops that light, so it can't get through. The dark shape on the ground is the spot the light can't reach.

At lunchtime, the sun sits high up in the sky. Its light comes down from above you. So your body blocks only a little patch of ground. That's why your lunchtime shadow stays short.

In the evening, the sun sits low, just above the rooftops and trees. Its light doesn't come from above anymore. It comes in slanting, which means coming in low from the side, like a long ramp.

Now the slanting light reaches your body. Your body blocks it, the same as at lunchtime. Can you guess where the dark patch stops this time?

It stops far, far away! The slanting light skims low over your head. It touches the ground again only a long way off. All the ground in between stays dark, and that's your long shadow.

As the sun sinks lower, its light comes in even more slanting. So the later the evening gets, the longer your shadow grows.

The low evening sun shines slanting light at you. Your body blocks that slanting light, and a long shadow stretches across the ground.

The golden sun sinks lower, just above the treetops. Your long shadow walks along the path with you, all the way home.