How does my shadow change? Early morning shadow Noon shadow Evening shadow The three pictures printed on page 155, redrawn simply.

Your shadow changes in three ways. Its length changes. It is long in the early morning, short at noon, and long again in the evening. Its direction changes. The evening shadow points the opposite way to the morning shadow. Its shape changes whenever you change your pose — spread your arms and the shadow spreads its arms. Why it happens: The Sun appears to move across the sky through the day. Since the light comes from a new place every hour, the dark patch you make on the ground has a new length and a new direction every hour.

Does this happen to all the objects? Early morning shadow Noon shadow Evening shadow The three pictures printed on page 155, redrawn simply.

Yes. It happens to every object that blocks the light. A tree, a pole, a wall, a bucket, a bicycle — each one makes a shadow. Every one of those shadows is long in the morning, short at noon and long again in the evening. Page 158 of your book shows exactly this for a tree : three pictures, three different shadows. Why it happens: The rule does not belong to you — it belongs to the light. The same Sun lights up everything around you, so every object’s shadow changes together, in the same way, at the same time. Check it yourself: At noon, look at the shadow of a pole and the shadow of a friend at the same moment. Both are short. Come back in the evening. Both are long.

NCERT Solutions for Class 4th The World Around Us Chapter 10 Interesting things about shadows — The Shadows

Book page 155 Updated on2026-09-19

Q1.

Have you ever noticed your shadow moving along with you?

Answer

Yes. The shadow goes wherever you go.

If you walk, the shadow walks. If you run, the shadow runs with you.
If you make different poses, the shape of the shadow changes in the same way.
If you jump, the shadow jumps too.

Why it happens: A shadow is made where your body blocks the light. Your body is always in the same place as you, so the dark patch it makes has to move with you as well.

Try This: Stand in the Sun and put your hands on your head like two horns. Look at the ground. The shadow has horns too.

Q2.

In the pictures above, what are the differences in the shadows?

The three pictures printed on page 155, redrawn simply.

Answer

The shadows differ in length and in direction.

Morning: the shadow is long.
Noon: the shadow is short — it lies almost under the feet.
Evening: the shadow is long again.
But the evening shadow falls in the opposite direction to the morning shadow.

So the pattern is: long → short → long, and the two long ones point opposite ways.

Why it happens: The Sun appears low in the sky in the morning and in the evening, and that makes long shadows. At noon it is overhead, so the shadow is squeezed into a short patch. And because the Sun appears on one side in the morning and on the other side in the evening, the shadow turns right round.

Q3.

How does my shadow change?

The three pictures printed on page 155, redrawn simply.

Answer

Your shadow changes in three ways.

Its length changes. It is long in the early morning, short at noon, and long again in the evening.
Its direction changes. The evening shadow points the opposite way to the morning shadow.
Its shape changes whenever you change your pose — spread your arms and the shadow spreads its arms.

Why it happens: The Sun appears to move across the sky through the day. Since the light comes from a new place every hour, the dark patch you make on the ground has a new length and a new direction every hour.

Q4.

Does this happen to all the objects?

The three pictures printed on page 155, redrawn simply.

Answer

Yes. It happens to every object that blocks the light.

A tree, a pole, a wall, a bucket, a bicycle — each one makes a shadow.
Every one of those shadows is long in the morning, short at noon and long again in the evening.
Page 158 of your book shows exactly this for a tree: three pictures, three different shadows.

Why it happens: The rule does not belong to you — it belongs to the light. The same Sun lights up everything around you, so every object’s shadow changes together, in the same way, at the same time.

Check it yourself: At noon, look at the shadow of a pole and the shadow of a friend at the same moment. Both are short. Come back in the evening. Both are long.

Q5.

Are shadows formed only in the sunlight?

Answer

No. Any light can make a shadow, not only sunlight.

A torch makes a shadow — you will see this in the activity on page 156.
A lamp, a candle, a tube light and even a mobile phone screen make shadows.
Moonlight on a bright full-Moon night can also make a faint shadow.

Why it happens: A shadow only needs two things — a light, and something that blocks the light. It does not matter whether the light comes from the Sun or from a torch.

Try This: Close the door of a dark room, switch on a torch, and hold your hand in front of it. A shadow appears on the wall at once.

Q6.

I wonder why these changes occur?

Answer

The changes happen because the Sun appears to move across the sky.

In the morning the Sun appears in the East, low down.
By noon it has come overhead.
In the afternoon it moves towards the West and goes low again.

So the light reaches you from a different side at every hour. The shadow always falls on the side away from the light — so it turns as the Sun turns, and it stretches when the Sun is low.

Why it happens: Your book puts it in one line on page 157: “The direction of the shadow also changes because of the movement of the Sun.”

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