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

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.

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.

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

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

Are there boxes, is this an illusion, or is this real life Q-bert? Illusions are always fun to build especially when you can build them.

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

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

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.

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

In this activity about afterimages, learners explore what happens when receptor cells called cones in your eye's retina get tired.

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

In this activity, learners make a photographic image—without a camera!

In this activity about depth perception, learners create an optical illusion in a shoe box.

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

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.

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.

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.

In this activity, learners make a photographic image--without a camera!

In this activity, learners discover that our hands are not reliable thermometers.