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CD Spinner
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In this activity, learners create a simple “top” from a CD, marble and bottle cap, and use it as a spinning platform for a variety of illusion-generating patterns.
Touch the Spring (Lightbulb)
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In this activity, a lightbulb is placed in front of a concave mirror. The actual lightbulb is not visible to the viewer, but the viewer can see the mirror image of the lightbulb formed in space.
Physics in a Glass: Reversing Arrows
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In this simple activity, learners investigate refraction by placing a picture of an arrow behind a glass of water.
Moving Pictures
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In this optics activity, learners create flip books by drawing an image like an eye opening and closing on 24 small pages of paper.
Parabolas: It's All Done with Mirrors
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In this activity about light and reflection, learners use a special device called a Mirage Maker™ to create an illusion.
Tiny Pants Photo Challenge
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In this activity, learners use a simple trick of perspective to dress friends in tiny cutout clothing. Learners make tiny pants out of card stock and tape them to the end of a stick.
Our Sense of Sight: How We Perceive Movement, Depth and Illusions
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In this activity, learners investigate visual perception as well as plan and conduct their own experiments.
Sliding Gray Step
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How can you make one shade of gray look like two? By putting it against two different color backgrounds! This activity allows learners to perform this sleight of hand very easily.
Benham’s Disk
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In this activity (on page 2 of the PDF under GPS: Light and Color Activity), learners will see the illusion of colors produced by a rotating black and white image known as Benham’s Disk.
Color Contrast
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Do you have a hard time matching paint swatches with your furniture? When you consider human perception, color is context dependent.
Afterimage
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In this activity about light and perception, learners discover how a flash of light can create a lingering image called an "afterimage" on the retina of the eye.
Phantom Phlame
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In this trick, hold your hand over a burning candle without getting burned, by reflecting and transmitting the light of two candles. This activity is best suited as a demonstration.
Anti-Gravity Mirror
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In this demonstration, amaze learners by performing simple tricks using mirrors. These tricks take advantage of how a mirror can reflect your right side so it appears to be your left side.
Magic Disc
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In this activity, learners create an optical illusion by spinning two attached cups. A round ball seems to magically appear when the cups spin.
Benham's Disk
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In this activity, learners make a Benham Top to explore visual illusions and optics.
Disappearing Glass Rods
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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
Penny Cup Game
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In this optics activity, learners conduct an experiment to find out why two eyes are better than one!
Hole in Your Hand
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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.
Benham's Disk
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In this optics activity, learners discover that when they rotate a special black and white pattern called a Benham's Disk, it produces the illusion of colored rings.
Vanishing Rods
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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.