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Theme: Light and Its Interaction with Matter

Light is everywhere around us, and humans wouldn't be able to survive without it.

HUMANIZING SCIENCE 2019 - 2020

HHA SCIENCE CLUB EXPERIMENTS AND PHOTOS

Reflection, Refraction, Transmission, Scattering (Part 1)

Any of these activities can be tried alone. 

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At a large event, participants can group into six teams that rotate through all five experiments at different stations. (One activity is a competition between two teams.) 

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KHET (REFLECTION)

(Two teams)

 

Use reflection to play a game.

 

Objective:

- How can you control the direction of light from its source to illuminate an object?

Download Instructions

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LIGHT UP BAG AND WIGGLING SPOTS (REFLECTION)
 

Use lasers and plastic bags filled with water and air to experiment with reflection.

 

Objectives:

- How can you use reflection to light up the whole bag?

- How can you reflect light from the interface of different materials and make light spots? - How can you determine which interfaces the spots are coming from?

Download Instructions

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INTERNAL REFLECTION
 

Shine the laser through the hole when water is flowing out.

 

Objective:

- Can you see the light “bending” with the water?

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BENDING LIGHT AT AN AIR/WATER INTERFACE (REFRACTION AND SCATTERING)

- Use the straw and watch how it bends when it enters the water

- Use red laser and measure angle of refraction with protractor and calculate refractive index.

 

Objectives

- In which direction does the straw bend?

- In which direction does the red laser light refract?

- Does the angle of refraction differ depending on the angle in which the straw and the light enter the water?

- Do you notice a difference in how the light refracts depending on which side (air or water) you view it from?

- Can you use Snell’s Law?

Download Instructions

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CREATING AN INVERTING LENS FROM WATER (REFRACTION)
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Observe the inversion of objects through water in a cylindrical jar

 

Objectives:

- What happens to the direction of an arrow when it is observed through air and when it is observed through water in a jar?

- Can you draw light rays to show why the water inverts an image?

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Photo Gallery

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Absorption, Fluorescence, Phosphorescence, Diffraction and Prisms

(Part 2)

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LIGHT AS A RULER TO MEASURE OBJECTS TOO SMALL TO SEE (DIFFRACTION)
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- Shine a laser through the diffraction card.

- Measure different variables in the given equation to calculate the spacing between lines on the card that are otherwise too small to see by eye

- Determine how diffraction patterns change with different laser colors.

 

Objectives:

- Use the diffraction cards with different-colored lasers to see the difference between laser wavelengths and line spacings on the card.

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THE COLORS OF WHITE LIGHT (REFRACTION AND PRISMS)
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- Shine a flashlight through a slit in black paper into a prism

- Rotate the prism to create a rainbow

 

Objectives

- Use Snell’s Law to calculate the refraction that makes a rainbow

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Download Instructions

ABSORBANCE

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- Compare the absorbed wavelengths of colors to the color transmitted

- Combine different color filters to make new colors and to block out light

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Objectives

- Understand how the wavelengths absorbed in an object affect the wavelengths transmitted and reflected

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FLUORESCENCE

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- Light up an object with black light. If it glows under the light and immediately stops when the flashlight is off, it is fluorescent.

- Light up an object with black light. If it is still glowing when the flashlight is off, it is phosphorescent.

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Objectives

- Visualize the difference between phosphorescence and fluorescence

- Find what colors of excited light produce fluorescence

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Download Instructions

LIGHTING UP PHOSPHORESCENT FILM

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- Light up an object with white light. If it is still glowing when the flashlight is off, it is phosphorescent.

- Experiment with shining a flashlight on phosphorescent film

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Objectives

- Determine how distance, illumination time, and color films affect phosphorescence

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Download Instructions

Gallery

Coming Soon: Fluorescence Microscopy and Chemiluminescence

(Part 3)

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