It is visible, but quite big and moving very fast so you cannot see it from the ground. -It is often very visible from other aircraft.
We cannot see the shadow of an airplane flying high in the sky because the altitude is too great for the shadow to be cast clearly on the ground. The sunlight is typically too diffuse at that height, and the shadow is often too small and faint to be noticeable. Additionally, the ground beneath the airplane is vast and uneven, making it difficult for the shadow to appear distinct. Lastly, atmospheric conditions and obstacles on the ground can further obscure any potential shadow.
Birds flying up in the sky do not cast their shadow because the source of light (sun) is too large compared to the object (bird) and the umbra of the shadow formed on the screen (ground) is very small, negligible.So it is tough to see its shadow on the ground. (P.S. If this is a VNS student reading this for Physics research, then I'm pretty sure you're in my grade and you know who I am)
About 4.2 miles.
The trajectory for this flying paper airplane is high.
The airplane was flying at a very high altitude.
Objects do cast shadows at higher altitudes in the same way they do on the ground; however, the shadow may not be visible due to the lack of contrast against the sky. Additionally, the position of the sun in the sky and the angle at which light is hitting the object can also affect the visibility of the shadow.
The shadow of a flying bird may not be seen on the ground because the bird is often higher in the sky than the angle at which the sun's rays hit the ground, resulting in the shadow being cast above where we can see it from the ground. Additionally, the bird's movement and the speed of the sun may also contribute to the shadow not being visible to us.
high speed travel like flying on an airplane
As the plane is taking off or landing you can follow it for several minutes. As the plane gets higher, the shadow is farther away, and so it looks smaller and smaller. However, you can compare the size to that of barns and trucks on the highway; it's not changing size much. There's another problem with shadows made by the sun, which you will observe if you compare the shadow of the top of the flag pole to the shadow of the part near eye-level: the sun is not a dot on the sky, so that sunlight comes from many slightly different directions. This makes the shadow fuzzy. When the airplane is so high that it doesn't look much bigger than the sun (seen from the ground), its shadow will be extremely fuzzy and you can no longer see it.
Wax paper works good for strong, high-flying planes.
Airplanes do not fly high enough to be unaffected by the force of gravity.
If you're standing on the ground, then the plane's shadow is too small,and it moves too fast.Hint: The shadow is on you only when you see the plane fly across the sun.It's much easier to see the shadow when you're in the plane.