Search Results
Showing results 1 to 20 of 30
Mirrors and Images
Source Institutions
In this optics activity, learners explore how many objects they can see in a set of mirrors (hinged like a book) at various angles.
CD Spectroscope
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners use an old CD to construct a spectroscope, a device that separates light into its component colors.
Pinhole Viewer
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners discuss and investigate how cameras, telescopes, and their own eyes use light in similar ways.
Soap-Film Painting
Source Institutions
Make a big canvas of iridescent color with pvc pipe! In this Exploratorium Science Snack, you'll need to cut and assemble some PVC pipe, but the pay-off, the soap-bubble canvas, is big.
The Three Little Pigments: Science activity that demonstrates the primary and secondary colors of lightScience activity that demonstrates the primary and secondary colors of light The Three Little Pigments Know your C, M, Y, and K.
Source Institutions
Align four color transparencies, each one a single color (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black), and see a beautiful full color image.
Magic Wand
Source Institutions
In this activity about light and perception, learners create pictures in thin air.
The Ripple Tank
Source Institutions
In this optics activity, learners create a ripple tank from household materials to study waves. Learners build the tank and then explore by making various types of waves.
Hole in Your Hand
Source Institutions
Create an illusion where it appears that your hand has a hole in it. You'll see the results from when one eye gets conflicting information.
Mix and Match
Source Institutions
In this optics activity, learners explore color by examining color dots through colored water and the light of a flashlight.
The Bent Pencil
Source Institutions
In this optics activity, learners explore how light bends and affects what we see.
Critical Angle
Source Institutions
In this optics activity, learners examine how a transparent material such as glass or water can actually reflect light better than any mirror.
The Blind Spot
Source Institutions
In this activity (1st on the page), learners find their blind spot--the area on the retina without receptors that respond to light.
Vanishing Rods
Source Institutions
This is a quick activity/demonstration that introduces learners to the concept of index of refraction. Learners place stirring rods in a jar of water and notice they can see them clearly.
Make a Light Fountain
Source Institutions
In this optics activity, learners make a "light fountain" from a clear plastic bottle, flashlight, and other simple materials.
Soap-Film Interference Model: Get on our wavelength!
Source Institutions
By making models of light waves with paper, learners can understand why different colors appear in bubbles.
Mini Zoetrope
Source Institutions
In this activity (posted on March 27, 2011), learners follow the steps to construct a mini zoetrope, a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures.
Persistence of Vision
Source Institutions
If you had a long tube with a 5 millimeter wide slit, would you see the entire Golden Gate Bridge?
Disappearing Glass Rods
Source Institutions
In this optics activity, learners discover how they can make glass objects "disappear." Learners submerge glass objects like stirring rods into a beaker of Wesson™ oil to explore how the principles of
Transparent Gelatin
Source Institutions
In this optics activity, learners explore how they can make gelatin stop light, but not stop them from seeing fruit suspended within.
Color Contrast
Source Institutions
Do you have a hard time matching paint swatches with your furniture? When you consider human perception, color is context dependent.