Why can one toy have two shadows?

Picture your teddy bear sitting on the floor of your room. Two lamps are on, one by your bed and one by the door. Look down beside your teddy. You can spot two dark shapes there!

Both dark shapes belong to the same little teddy. They are both its shadows. So why can one toy have two shadows? Let's find out together.

Light comes out of the lamp by your bed. It shines straight across the room. It lands on the floor and on your teddy.

Your teddy is soft and fluffy, but you cannot see through it. So the teddy blocks the light, which means it stops the light from getting past. The floor behind the teddy gets no light from the bed lamp.

That dark patch behind the teddy is its shadow. It lies on the side of the teddy away from the bed lamp. The shadow has a teddy shape, because the teddy blocked a teddy-shaped piece of light.

The lamp by the door is on too. Its light comes from a different place in the room. This light reaches your teddy from the door side. What do you think the teddy does to this light?

The teddy blocks this light too! Behind the teddy, on the side away from the door, another patch of floor stays dark. That is the second shadow.

Each lamp gives the teddy its own shadow. Each shadow lies away from its own lamp. The two lamps sit in two different places, so the two shadows land in two different places.

Our special word today is block. So one toy gets two shadows: two lamps shine on it, and it blocks both lights.

Goodnight to your teddy and to both of its shadows. Sleep tight, little shadow finder.