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Rotating Light
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In this activity, learners explore what happens when polarized white light passes through a sugar solution.

Spherical Reflections
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In this art meets science activity, learners pack silver, ball-shaped ornaments in a single layer in a box to create an array of spherical reflectors.

Soap-Film Painting
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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.

Magic Wand
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In this activity about light and perception, learners create pictures in thin air.

Hot Spot
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In this activity, learners explore the invisible infrared radiation from an electric heater.

Look Into Infinity
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Learners use two mirrors to explore how images of images of images can repeat forever.

Critical Angle
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In this optics activity, learners examine how a transparent material such as glass or water can actually reflect light better than any mirror.

Glow Up
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In this activity, learners explore chemiluminescence and fluorescence. Learners examine 3 different solutions in regular light, in the dark with added bleach solution, and under a black light.

Corner Reflector
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In this optics/mathematics activity, learners use two hinged mirrors to create a kaleidoscope that shows multiple images of an object.

Convection Current
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In this activity, learners make their own heat waves in an aquarium.

Self-Portrait Silhouettes: Activity 2
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In this activity, learners make a photographic image—without a camera!

Bone Stress
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In this optics activity, learners examine how polarized light can reveal stress patterns in clear plastic.

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.

Gray Step
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In this activity, learners discover that it's difficult to distinguish between two different shades of gray when they aren't separated by a boundary.

Self-Portrait Silhouettes: Activity 1
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In this activity, learners make a photographic image--without a camera!

Inverse Square Law
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In this math activity related to light, learners explore why a light, such as a candle or a streetlight, looks dimmer the farther away from it we get.

Pixel Tube
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In this STEAM activity, learners create a "pixel tube" to explore reflections of light and color mixing.

Colored Shadows
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In this optics activity, learners discover that not all shadows are black. Learners explore human color perception by using colored lights to make additive color mixtures.

Blue Sky
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In this optics activity, learners explore why the sky is blue and the sunset is red, using a simple setup comprising a transparent plastic box, water, and powdered milk.

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.