Observing Light

An interesting activity to do is to make observations about light using a CD-ROM that you don't want. We all have a lot of old software CD-ROMs that can be "sacrificed for the cause". A colleague of mine, Prof. Alan Schwabacher, has designed a very nice spectroscope using pieces of CDs to provide the "grating", the component that breaks light into its components.

Click here - to reach the page with the home made spectroscopes.

Once we make these spectroscopes we can look at different types of light and see how they differ. Looking at sunlight through the window, for example, is quite different from that of a fluorescent light. Some automobiles now have lights that look very bright, and slightly purple. Is the light from these headlights different from those on other cars? You can think of a lot of ways that you can find different kinds of light in your everyday experiment. Think of an experiment you can do yourself and report your results to us - we'll be happy to hear about them?

Email Dr. Holme

Return to the "Science Fun for Everyone Page"