• Krudler@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    Imagine how shadows on earth would look if our sun was actually a cosmic LED bulb array with 9 bulbs.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbra%2C_penumbra_and_antumbra

    Any light source they’re using isn’t a single beam of photons, it’s a cast cone of light. Actually multiple cones because mostly it’s LED array lighting.

    So there’s an (effectively) infinite number of shadows because it’s being hit by photons coming from multiple angles, from multiple little light cones.

    The shadows form a distributed pattern behind.

    There’s other factors like scattering within the media the photons travel through (air) as well as refraction.

    e: I tried to make it make more sense. Its about understanding that a light sources are cones of light hitting from many angles at once.