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[ Information | Background | The CyberTeaser | Quantum News | Miscellaneous Stuff ] Solution to CyberTeaser B163At the North and South poles, the Sun is at the same height all day long (except for their respective “polar nights,” when the Sun doesn’t shine at all). So the shadow of any object at the poles “walks around” the same spot all day, and its length stays the same. Note: Several respondents took care to note that the length of a shadow would remain fairly constant throughout the day at the Earth’s rotational poles, and they have a point. Although Brian Platt in effect told us there was no place that satisfied the condition, we gave him credit for this portion of his answer: “If there is any daylight at all, then your shadow changes in size during the day, even on the North Pole, where the least change in height is on the first day of summer. On that day, a shadow would start out at about 2.29988 times the height of the object and go to about 2.30002 times its height 24 hours later.” CyberTeaser Archive
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