Discover Light
There are three main things to know about light:
- If there is no light we cannot see
- Light travels in straight lines
- White light (like sunlight) is all the colours mixed together
We see things because light bounces off them and into our eyes. If there is no light we can’t see anything. Can you think of any sources of light?
frozen shadows video header
Frozen shadows
Stand with your back against the green wall, have someone else pushes the red button, and a light will FLASH. Look back to see your shadow ‘frozen’ on the wall.
How do you think this works?
The green material is able to absorb light and re-emit it. Light is unable to travel through your body, and because it can only travel in straight lines is also unable to bend around your body. This means parts of the wall where you were standing don’t get any light and stay dark.
When using the activities in the discovery zone remember to:
- Predict: What do you think will happen?
- Experiment: Test the activity
- Conclude: What did happen?
- Investigate: How could you change the experiment to get a different outcome?