Shadow dance
Question: I travelled to Hungary to observe the recent total solar eclipse.
About five minutes before totality, my wife and I noticed many curved shadows
about 3 centimetres long dancing on a sheet of white paper lying on the ground,
formed by a swarm of gnats. The shadows were exactly the same shape as the
remaining bright portion of the Sun, by then only a thin arc of light. Why?
Answer: In Newcastle, when the eclipse was approaching the maximum 85 per
cent that we saw here, my eight-year-old daughter Helen and I tried the pinhole
camera trick…
