Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Homemade Simple Picture Projector - Fun With Science

We discovered from Mr. Wizard's 400 Experiments in Science, that you can hold a magnifying glass over a light bulb (that's turned on), and project the words, written on the bulb, onto the ceiling, only backwards. We thought that was pretty cool.

But, we wondered if we couldn't make it even better. So, we drew a simple happy face on a sandwich bag, and held it tightly over a flashlight.

When you shine the bag covered, flashlight at the wall, it looks like this.


Then, when you put the magnifying glass in front of the flashlight..


...it will look like this...

...and, as you move the magnifying glass forward, away from the flashlight, it will change to this (as long as you're holding your smiley face upside down)...



The kids liked this one, quite a bit.


It's great to be a homeschooler.

9 comments:

Ticia said...

huh that's very cool. The boys got a Star Wars binoculars that does a similar thing. It's kind of amusing.

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

This is a pretty neat experiment. Did you explain to the kids why they have to hold their face upside down? It's a pretty difficult thing to understand, I think.

Christy Killoran said...

I have never seen that before. It's pretty cool. I think my oldest would have fun with that.

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Raising a Happy Child - Today it was just for fun. I'll probably follow it up with the science another time. We'll watch the Magic School Bus Gets a Bright Idea, and call it good, for now.

Brimful Curiosities said...

Neat little experiment with focus, lenses and light. I love it!

Unknown said...

fun! we'll have to try that!
we are, what I call "quasi-unschoolers". I came across your blog on Tonya's (travelers) blog- which I go to via a facebook Homeschool Group.

Christianne @ Little Page Turners said...

Mr. Wizard! There's a blast from my past. Glad to see he's still helping children fall in love with science. :)

Unknown said...

Now THAT made me smile... :0)

Debbie said...

I am going to have to do this to see what type of reaction I get from Selena. I love how your daughter's expression changed from the first picture to the last one!