Materials:
- coin, water
- *blu tack (mounting putty, what our family calls “sticky stuff” for hanging things on the wall – *can do without)
- a bowl that you can’t see through (not glass)
Procedure:
- Put the coin in the bottom middle of the bowl. If you have “sticky stuff,” then stick the coin to the bottom of the bowl.
- Pour some water into the bowl and cover the coin. Pour slowly. Pour very carefully if your coin isn’t stuck so that you don’t move it.
- The observer should move backwards until the coin just goes out of sight.
- The pourer should then start to slowly and carefully add more water. Keep adding water until the coin is in view to the observer.
Conclusion:
- At first, the bowl keeps you from seeing the coin.
- The water bends the light over the edge of the bowl so that you can see the coin.
- In the bath you can see if something at the bottom of the tub seems closer to the surface than it really is.
- Refracted light is when light bends. It happens when it hits a surface which makes the light change directions. Water is one of those surfaces that bends light.