The Brightest Part of a Shadow is in the Middle
Why is there a bright spot behind spherical objects? Be the first to find out about new projects: http://www.veritasium.com Filmed by Nathan Watkins and Raquel Nuno, animation by Meg Rosenburg....
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Where is the darkest part of a shadow?I mean the obvious answer seems to be, right in the middle.If you look closely at a shadow, as you move the object away from the wall,you notice that the shadow gets a bit fuzzy.So clearly, the edges are lighter.Now, we know that light bends around corners,that's a phenomenon call "diffraction".So, is it diffraction that's responsible for the fuzzy edges of shadows?Actually?... No.The reason that shadows have fuzzy edges,is because most light sources like the sun are not perfectly point objects.So, light from one edge of the sun is coming at a very slightly different anglefrom light from the other edge of the sun, and that's what gives us these fuzzy edges. It's not diffraction.B...
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Where is the darkest part of a shadow?I mean the obvious answer seems to be, right in the middle.If you look closely at a shadow, as you move the object away from the wall,you notice that the shadow gets a bit fuzzy.So clearly, the edges are lighter.Now, we know that light bends around corners,that's a phenomenon call "diffraction".So, is it diffraction that's responsible for the fuzzy edges of shadows?Actually?... No.The reason that shadows have fuzzy edges,is because most light sources like the sun are not perfectly point objects.So, light from one edge of the sun is coming at a very slightly different anglefrom light from the other edge of the sun, and that's what gives us these fuzzy edges. It's not diffraction.B...
