Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to rescue your friend Pam from the legal jeopardy she finds herself in. Her situation is described briefly below. Can you use your knowledge of the seasons to demonstrate, using the evidence available to you, that Pam was not in Newark, Delaware, on December 22? 

If you do accept your mission, your group must write a report, addressed to Pam's lawyer, which produces such a demonstration. Your group really can choose to decline your mission, but the consequence is a grade of zero for this lab!

Pam's Situation:

Your friend Pam has been accused of participating in an embezzlement conspiracy. Embezzlement, which is a felony, is a criminal scheme whereby a person obtains money from a bank under false pretenses. On December 22 of last year, someone showed up at the Main Street office of the Wilmington Trust Company with a promissory note, supposedly signed by the Treasurer of the University of Delaware, which indicated that the person's company had a contract to supply the University with many cases of toilet paper and should be paid $10,000 in cash. Based on a very blurry photograph taken by a security camera and shaky descriptions from eyewitnesses, the Delaware District Attorney has accused your friend Pam of being the person who showed up at the bank. Pam says that she was on vacation in Cozumel, Mexico, at the time in question. 

Pam's Evidence: 

Pam has some pictures, shown on this Web page, of herself, her boyfriend, and some of her friends.  These pictures were taken with a film camera, not a digital camera. The District Attorney has agreed with your lawyer that forensic evidence connected with the pictures does show that the pictures were taken in late December. The DA, however, believes that Pam took these pictures of her and her friends standing in front of a wall-sized picture of a beach with a little patch of sand in front of it, on a sunny day in December. The DA argues that the pictures were really taken in Newark. 

Pam has recommended you as a friend who knows something about astronomy. Can you analyze the pictures to show that they were not taken in Newark? The most persuasive analysis will be of picture 1, which is the picture of Pam. If your group wants to earn extra lab participation points, you can look at some of the other pictures as well. Since the title of this lab is The Shadows of Light, you should probably be examining the shadows that are shown in the pictures. 
 

I will need a letter from you which can help me persuade the DA that Pam really was in Cozumel on December 23.  I am familiar with the laboratory and the materials that are in it, so you do not need to describe them. What I need is one or two pages that persuasively argue that you could use those materials to show that the pictures were taken in Cozumel. Your paragraphs should convince me that I could use you as a witness in court. I hope that your letter will be convincing enough so that the DA will back off, drop the charges, and stop threatening to arrest Pam and put her in jail.

2. How could you use pictures 2 and 3 to help support your arguments? 

3. How are the shadows in pictures 2 and 3 different from the shadow in picture 1?  Does the difference in the appearance of these shadows make it more difficult to make a convincing argument?