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NCERT Solutions for Class 5th The World Around Us Chapter 9 Day and Night — Activity 1

Book page 150 Updated on2026-09-19

Q1.
Let one student be the ‘Sun’ and another the ‘Earth’ standing at a distance. The Sun stands at the centre. Let the student playing ‘Earth’ stand in one place and slowly turn around (rotate). As long as the student sees the ‘Sun’, they keep saying — “day … day … day”, looking straight ahead. When the student stops seeing the ‘Sun’ they keep saying “night … night … night”.
Answer

What you will find: the student playing the Earth says “day” for exactly half of every turn and “night” for the other half — without anybody telling them when to switch. The ‘Sun’ never moves at all, and yet day and night keep coming, one after the other.

How to play it:

  1. Clear a space in the class or go out to the ground.
  2. One student stands still in the centre. This student is the Sun. The Sun must not move or turn.
  3. A second student stands about four steps away, facing the Sun. This student is the Earth.
  4. The Earth now turns slowly on the spot — like a top, without walking anywhere. This turning is rotation.
  5. The Earth must keep looking straight ahead and must not turn the neck to peep at the Sun. That is the whole point.
  6. While the Sun is in front and can be seen, the Earth says “day … day … day”.
  7. The moment the Sun goes out of sight, the Earth says “night … night … night”.
  8. The rest of the class counts the turns and notices when the word changes.
Where the ‘Earth’ has turned toCan the ‘Sun’ be seen?What the student says
Facing the SunYes, straight aheadDay (this is like midday)
Turned a quarter way roundOnly at the very edge of sightDay, but just ending — like sunset
Back towards the SunNoNight (this is like midnight)
Turned three-quarters roundComing back into sightDay beginning — like sunrise
Why the game works: Your eyes can only see what is in front of you, just as sunlight can only fall on the side of the Earth that faces the Sun. So “I can see the Sun” means exactly the same thing as “sunlight is falling here”, which means day. Half a turn later that same place is facing away, and it is night. One full turn of the student stands for one full turn of the Earth — about 24 hours.
Make it clearer: Ask the ‘Earth’ to turn very slowly and to say the word out loud on every step. The class will hear day change into night and back into day in a steady rhythm — which is exactly what a rhythm of nature sounds like.
Q2.
Demonstration — Day and Night. Step 1: Place a globe on a table and flash a torch on one side of the globe. The torchlight represents the Sun. The side where the light falls has day, and the side with no light has night. Step 2: Rotation — Slowly rotate the globe while keeping the torch steady. Step 3: Observe how different parts of our globe face the light as it rotates.
Answer

What you will see: the torch lights up exactly one half of the globe and leaves the other half dark. As you turn the globe, India moves out of the bright part into the dark part and then back into the bright part again. The torch has not moved even a little. Only the globe turned.

How to set it up:

  1. Darken the room as much as you can. Close the curtains, or do it in a corner away from the window.
  2. Place the globe on a table so that everyone can see it.
  3. Stand about one metre away and shine the torch straight at the middle of the globe. Hold the torch steady with both hands, or rest it on a pile of books so it cannot move at all.
  4. Find India on the globe. Turn the globe so that India is right in the middle of the bright part.
  5. Now turn the globe slowly, always in the same direction. Do not move the torch.
  6. Keep your eyes on India and watch what happens to it.
What you doWhat you observeWhat it means on the real Earth
Shine the torch and do not turn the globeOne half is bright, the other half is completely dark. The line between them is sharp.At any moment, half the world has day and half has night
India is in the middle of the bright partIndia is fully litMidday in India
Turn the globe a quarter wayIndia reaches the edge of the lightEvening — the Sun is setting
Turn it furtherIndia is in the dark halfNight in India
Keep turningIndia comes back into the light from the other edgeMorning — the Sun is rising
Look at the far side while India is litCountries like the U.S.A. are in the darkIt is night there while it is day here
Why the torch is a good stand-in for the Sun: Like the Sun, the torch stays in one place and sends out light in straight lines. Straight light cannot curve round a ball, so exactly half of the ball is lit — no more, no less. Everything that happens on the globe on your table is happening on the real Earth at this very moment, only much bigger.
Check it yourself: Try moving the torch around the globe instead of turning the globe. You will get day and night that way too — but that is not what really happens. The Sun does not travel round us; we turn. Doing it the wrong way once makes the right way easier to remember.
Q3.
Did you notice how the light made day on one side of the globe and night on the other?
Answer

Yes. The torch lit up one half of the globe and left the other half dark — and both halves were there at the same time. That is the most important thing to notice: day and night are not one after the other on the whole Earth. They are happening together, in different places.

Three things worth noticing carefully:

  1. Always exactly half. However you turn the globe, the bright part is always about half. It is never a small patch and never the whole globe.
  2. The dividing line keeps moving. The line between light and dark does not stay over the same countries. As the globe turns, that line sweeps across the world. Where the line passes, it is either sunrise or sunset at that moment.
  3. The Sun never moved. The torch stayed exactly where it was the whole time. Every bit of the change came from the globe turning.
Half the Earth lit = day
Half the Earth in shadow = night
Earth keeps turning ⟶ each place gets its turn in the light
One full turn = about 24 hours = one day and one night
Why this answers the question we started with: On page 149 we asked what causes day and night, and whether the Sun moves. The globe and the torch have now shown us both answers at once. The Sun is fixed, like the torch. The Earth rotates, like the globe. Day and night are simply the lit side and the shadow side of a turning ball.
One more thing to try: Stick a tiny paper flag on the globe where your own town is. Now turn the globe slowly and watch your flag go into the light and out of it. That is your day and your night.
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