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Color & Light

Chemiluminescence
Chromatography
Forums
Heat & Light
Language of Color
Lasers & Holograms
Lenses
Optical Illusions
Optics
Pinhole Cameras
Polorization
Shadows
Sky Lights
Spectrums
Triboluminescence

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Color and Light - Optics for Kids

Optics

Art & Optics: Science and Art Closer Than You Think
Optical technology and the study of light go far back in human culture. Contemporary artists are often quick to adopt new technology, or to absorb its implications. Was it any different then? Why should the use of a tool diminish the value of the art?

Concepts of Light and Color
A set of interactive Java applet tutorials to help you understand how color and light work. Beautifully done. Lots of levers to slide to make changes. From Molecular Expressions.

Cool Cosmos
Here you'll find pictures, videos, games, educational materials, and more. A fun way to learn all about the "cool" part of the electromagnetic spectrum: infrared light.

Discovering Light
This site is dedicated to light in all its manifestations: in physics, in technology, in nature and in culture. To help you learn about light, we've included a message board for posting questions. A Thinkquest site.

Fermilab's System of Web Pages About Light
Light is great, light is mysterious, light is useful. After all, they say everything started with light. When any revolution has happened in the history of science, light was always there. So it deserves a little attention.

Light and Optics
The purpose of this module is to delve a little deeper into the concept of light, to understand a little more than just that which allows us to "see". A mini-course in optics.

The Light Stuff
Here on Earth the speed of light can change. How? Go to Joe's Room and see if you can figure it out.

MicroWorlds
An interactive tour of current research in the materials sciences at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source. For high school students, this site explains how intense light is used for physics research.

Optics For Kids: Science and Engineering
Some fun and interesting things about OPTICS: the science of LIGHT, and one of the most important fields of PHYSICS. by Bruce Irving, Optical Research Associates.

Chemiluminescence

Chemiluminescence - Light without Heat
To do this experiment, you'll need some light sticks from a sporting goods store or a necklace from a fair. You'll watch what happens when you put it in hot water and in your refridgerator.. From Home Experiments by Professor Shakhashiri.

Firefly Files
How fireflies produce light via a chemical reaction and how you can attract fireflies to your yard, if you have them in the area in the first place.

A Modest Chemiluminescence Movie
Glow-in-the-dark chemical reactions you can watch online.

Chromatography

Chemistry of Autumn Colors
Formerly green leaves turn to brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red. These color changes are the result of transformations in leaf pigments.

Paper Towel Chromatography
Colors makes color! Separate different colors from a marker.

Separate Colors in a Green Leaf using Chromatography
To help you understand just how leaves change colors in the fall and why some trees change to red while others change to orange or yellow, try this experiment on leaves from the same tree both before and after color changes.

Why Do Leaves Change Color in the Fall?
Separate colors in a green leaf using chromatography. Observe how light affects color development. Word Scramble puzzles as well.

Forums

Optical Society of America Student Center
This is your opportunity to network electronically with OSA members who have expertise in various technical groups and application areas.

Heat & Light

The Infrared Zoo
What do animals look like in the infrared? Actually "see" the differences between warm and cold-blooded animals, and learn how animals use fur, blubber and feathers to insulate themselves.

Make a Pizza Box Solar Oven
Convert light energy to heat energy and cook yourself a meal without using fire. This does get quite hot, so do ask a parent to help.

Language of Color

Feng Shui and Color
Response to color symbolism is a response to color preconception, and it is a predetermined response based on literary and psychological ideas about color itself.

Talking About Color
There are three main components of color: hue, saturation, and brightness. We need all three of these components to be able to fully describe color.

Lasers & Holograms

Holography Lasers and Holograms
Learn all about these 3-D photographs. Make them for yourself.

Lenses

From Lenses to Optical Instruments
Understanding the properties of lenses is fundamental to becoming familiar with these instruments, to use them with confidence and to use lenses in a creative manner in order to design optical instruments.

Fun Science Gallery
In both English and Spanish, a series of optical experiments you can set up at home.

Up Periscope!
Be able to look over high fences and around corners with this handy device made with a tube and mirrors.

Optical Illusions

Counter-Rotating Spirals Illusion
Stare at the spirals for 20 seconds and then at the pattern on the right. What causes this affect? An optical illusion!

A didactic downloadable moiré demonstration kit
A printable moiré demonstration kit, where each layer is given by a separate PostScript file that can be downloaded and printed on a transparency.

Gallery of Visual Illusions
View and test various illusions by dragging seemingly different objects together or apart.

Illusions
20 visual illusions, hidden faces, moving yet still graphics.

Op Art NEW
Illusion design works that look like op art. Please note that this page could make you feel sick.

Polorization

Polarized Light in Nature and Technology
Polarization is present in the rainbow, in the hidden color of minerals, in the dance of honeybees, in the flow of molten metal, in the color of beetles, and the gloss of tree leaves at dawn.

Shadows

Bob Miller's Light Walk
Artist Bob Miller's "Light Walk" at the Exploratorium is always an eye-opening expereience for students and teachers alike. His unique discoveries will change the way you look at light, shadow, and images.

Shadow Dance
The purpose of this activity is to experiment with shadows and light sources and to understand the relationship between the angle of illumination and the shadow's length.

Sky Lights

Light and Optics in the Sky
When sunlight hits dust particles, bits of ice or drops of water, interesting effects begin to happen, such as rainbows, halos and spectacular sunsets.

Patterns in Nature: Light and Optics
The purpose of this module is to delve a little deeper into the concept of light, to understand a little more than just that which allows us to "see."

Aurora

Aurora Borealis
What creates these shimmering celestial lights? Information, resources and experiments you can carry out to learn more about the Northern Lights. From Newton's Apple.

Lightning

Lightning in a Pan
Try this easy experiment to make your own miniature version of a lightning bolt.

Rainbows

Building a Rainbow
Young students will enjoy just creating online rainbows. More advanced students can take the whole lab course to understand how rainbows obey the rules of calculus.

The Physics of a Rainbow
A most charming example of chromatic dispersion is a rainbow. When white sunlight is intercepted by a drop of water in the atmosphere, some of the light refracts into the drop, reflects from the drop's inner surface, and then refracts out of the drop.

Sunsets & Blue Skies

Blue Sky - Red Sunset
Why is the sky blue? What makes colorful sunsets? This simple demonstration will show you how these sky colors happen.

Sky Window
What color is the sky? Well, it's just not any old blue! Make a blue-gray-white color wheel to make surveys of sky colors over several weeks.

Spectrums

Colorcube Color Fun
Welcome to the Color Playground! This section features fun, interactive utilities that illustrate the many dimensions of 3D color. Play with each of the following to increase your understanding of color and the COLORCUBE model. Most of the play areas are staged from beginner to advanced levels.

Crayola Custom Crayon Box Builder
Select up to 4 colors from Crayola's labeled box of over 100 colors to create your own set of favorite colors.

The Lighter Side of Color - Forms of Color
What do x-rays, sun tanning, the warmth from a candle, TVs, and radios all have in common? Believe it or not, they're all forms of light.

Reading on Color and Light
Here we ask how color is sensed by the viewer. To answer the question we need to specify how color is described and how color information is received by the eye. The starting point of an understanding of color is a description of light.

Seeing Color
You may ask yourself why is it that we only see the "visible" portion of light?

Web Safe Color Chart - Paired Color Values
Click on a color to lock it as the background. Click on any color to unlock. Place your mouse over a color to see the CSS shorthand value tooltip.

Triboluminescence

Electric Candy- Or Triboluminescence
The wintergreen candy contains wintergreen oil. When the candy is chewed the wintergreen oil rubs against the course sugar and an electrical charge is produced.

Wintergreen Candy and other Triboluminescent Materials
Go into a closet or other dark room. Take along a mirror and some WintOGreen Lifesavers. Wait for your eyes to adjust and then bite down on the candy real hard while watching in the mirror. If the candy hasn't gotten soggy, your mouth will glow, and here's why.

 

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