Light and Shadows

Have you ever wondered why you can see your favorite teddy bear sitting on your bed. Or what makes the sidewalk feel warm when you play outside. That’s me. I am the sparkle on a puddle after it rains and the bright yellow of a happy dandelion. But I don’t work alone. I have a partner who loves to play games, especially hide-and-seek. Whenever you stand in my path, my partner pops out behind you, making a cool, dark shape on the ground. We are a team, and you can find us almost everywhere. Hello, I am Light, and this is my best friend, Shadow.

For a very, very long time, people watched us play our games. They noticed that as the sun moved across the sky, my friend Shadow would stretch out long or shrink down small. This gave them a super clever idea. They used us to create the very first clocks, which they called sundials. They also loved using us to tell stories. Have you ever made a bunny or a dog shape with your hands on the wall. They did that too, making amazing shadow puppets. A long time ago, a very wise scientist named Ibn al-Haytham watched us closely and figured out one of my biggest secrets. He realized that I travel in super-straight lines. You can see things because I bounce right off them and zoom into your eyes. It’s like a tiny, super-fast game of catch. Then, hundreds of years later, around the year 1666, another brilliant person named Isaac Newton played with me on a sunny day. He used a special piece of glass called a prism and let me shine through it. He discovered that I’m actually made of all the colors of the rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet are all hiding inside me, just waiting for a chance to come out and say hello.

Today, you can find us helping you in all sorts of ways. I help plants grow tall and strong, which gives you yummy fruits and vegetables to eat. Sometimes, people use special panels to catch me and use my energy to power lights and televisions in their homes. My friend Shadow is a great helper, too. Shadow makes the cool spot under a tree that's perfect for a picnic on a hot day. Together, we work in cameras to capture pictures of your smiling face and help make movies look real on a big screen. We paint beautiful colors across the sky when the sun says good morning or good night. So the next time you see a rainbow after a storm or make a funny shadow on the sidewalk, remember us. We are always here to fill your world with color, help you learn new things, and make every day a little more magical.