Solar Eclipse Shadow Changes: The Phenomena of Sharp and Fuzzy Shadows

A simple experimental model was designed to demonstrate the change in the character of shadows cast by an object during the increasingly deepening partial phases of a solar eclipse. Photographs of shadows cast by the experimental model reveal that as early as a 50 % partial phase, the Sun's light rays no longer behave as an extended source of light. The light rays become linear enough to create shadow edges that are sharp in the axis of the crescent Sun and fuzzy perpendicular to the axis of the crescent Sun.