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.
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.)
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?
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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?
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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?
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CREATING AN INVERTING LENS FROM WATER (REFRACTION)
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
Absorption, Fluorescence, Phosphorescence, Diffraction and Prisms
(Part 2)
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LIGHT AS A RULER TO MEASURE OBJECTS TOO SMALL TO SEE (DIFFRACTION)
- 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.
THE COLORS OF WHITE LIGHT (REFRACTION AND PRISMS)
- 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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ABSORBANCE
- Compare the absorbed wavelengths of colors to the color transmitted
- Combine different color filters to make new colors and to block out light
Objectives
- Understand how the wavelengths absorbed in an object affect the wavelengths transmitted and reflected
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FLUORESCENCE
- 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.
Objectives
- Visualize the difference between phosphorescence and fluorescence
- Find what colors of excited light produce fluorescence
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LIGHTING UP PHOSPHORESCENT FILM
- 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
Objectives
- Determine how distance, illumination time, and color films affect phosphorescence
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