Light

To view student web pages of Light related activities:

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This site is continually being updated. To report broken links, or if you have relevant new sites that you have found, send a brief email to: tannahills@si.edu

Light bibliography.

Myths about the Sun and Light
Read about the numerous myths and stories that exist about the sun and the light it produces.
http://www.windows.umich.edu/cgi-bin/tour.cgi?link=/mythology/planets/
sun.html&sw=false&sn=0&art=ok&edu=mid&cdp=/windows3.html&cd
=false&tour=&fr=f&frp=/windows3.html

Shadows and Eclipses
Here, at the Exploratorium you can try out some more experiments about shadows.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/shadows

Experience artist Bob Miller's "Light Walk" at the Exploratorium is always an eye-opening experience for students and teachers alike. His unique discoveries will change the way you look at light, shadow, and images.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/light_walk/lw_main.html

Contains information on past and presents solar eclipses and why they occur.
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/time/eclipses.html

Provides a tutorial on the causes of eclipses.
http://www.earthview.com/tutorial/causes.htm

Sky and Telescopes extensive page on eclipses. Includes lots of interesting photographs.
 http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/eclipses/

NASA’s page on eclipses provides very comprehensive resources on the topic, including calendars and a host of additional links to eclipse sites.
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html

Space.com provides a brief, east to understand, explanation of eclipses.
http://explorezone.com/space/eclipse.htm

 

The Speed of Light
This site generally discusses Einstein but has a section specifically on the speed of light.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/

 

Bioluminescence
General page on bioluminescence and chemiluminescence have a good set of animals from the sea that bioluminescence.
http://lifesci.ucsb.edu/~biolum/

Scripps Institution of Oceanography's "Glow With the Flow" contains lots of information and exciting photographs on this topic.
http://www.sio.ucsd.edu/explorations/biolum/

 

Northern Lights
Contains images and information about the northern lights.
http://www.geo.mtu.edu/weather/aurora/

 

Lighthouses
Summary of lots of info on lighthouses and lightships from USCG.
http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/h_lhindex.html

PBS site on historic lighthouses and lighthouse history. http://www.pbs.org/legendarylighthouses/

Gives one woman’s view of life as the wife of a lighthouse keeper. Leads to additional sites about the lighthouses at Apostle Island National Lakeshore in Wisconsin.
http://www.nps.gov/apis/mcclean.htm

Includes information on the construction and history of the Old Point Loma Lighthouse in Cabrillo National Monument in California.
http://www.nps.gov/cabr/lighthouse.html

 

History of Lighting
The overall page from NMAH on the history of electric lighting.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/lighting/

Interesting web-site collecting information on the history of lighting.
http://www.mts.net/~william5/history/hol.htm

Find out about the history and invention of different types of lighting.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bllight.htm

 

Edison
Has all kinds of information on Thomas Edison including biographies written for students, timelines, stories of his inventions and photographs of him, his inventions and lots of other scientists.
http://www.nps.gov/edis/home.htm

A Host of Edison links from About.com
http://history1900s.about.com/homework/history1900s/msub81.htm

 

The Electromagnetic Spectrum
Click on the appropriate part of an electromagnetic spectrum and discover more about the nature and uses of different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation.
http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/light/ems-frames.html

Find out about wavelengths of light, types of light, how astronomers use different wavelengths, and what they see!
http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/light/light_tour.html

Describes the electromagnetic spectrum and how astronomers use it to discover the nature of the universe.
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l2/multiwavelength.html

This is NASA's site on infrared light and infrared astronomy.
http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/

Find out about the discovery of infrared and the work of William Herschel at http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/classroom_activities/herschel_experiment.html

Read about Newton, his life and experiments. Follow links to Snell and other important figures from the science of optics. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/newton_isaac.shtml

What is light? What are the properties of waves? Find out the answers to these and other questions at Light Express.
http://www.lightexpress.soton.ac.uk/index.php?indx=oracle&pn=extra

 

Spectroscopy
Describes how to make you own spectroscope and how it works.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/spectra.html

Observe different spectra derived from sunlight, fluorescent light and a red LED.
http://mo-www.harvard.edu/Java/MiniSpectroscopy.html

 

Color
Big web-site on color including color and the brain, color and the body, color and vision, color and design, color and science, color and the world, color and computers…
http://www.colormatters.com/entercolormatters.html

This site discusses why the sky is blue and has some activities too.
http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/sky_blue.html

Explains how rainbows are formed.
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/blynds/rnbw.html

Provides a mathematical explanation of, and lab on, the formation of rainbows.
http://www.geom.umn.edu/education/calc-init/rainbow

See examples of additive and subtractive color mixing at
http://www.yorku.ca/eye/colormix.htm

 

X-rays
Read about the Chandra x-ray telescope. Follow the links to view the Universe with x-ray vision.
http://chandra.nasa.gov

Read about Roentgen, who won the first Nobel prize in physics for his work with x-rays.
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761555545/Roentgen.html

 

Solar Power

Solar energy information from the Department of Energy. http://www.eere.energy.gov/RE/solar.html

 

Reflection and Mirrors
Watch simple animation of rays as they reflect off plane and curved mirrors at different angles of incidence.
http://www.kettering.edu/~drussell/Demos/RayTrace/Mirrors.html

 

Ripple Tanks

Use this virtual ripple tank to perform different experiments with this model of light.
http://www.falstad.com/ripple/

 

Submarines/Periscopes
Virtual tour and history of a German U-boat captured in World War II. From the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
http://www.msichicago.org/exhibit/U505/virtualtour/index

 

Refraction
Try out a virtual version of the experiment with the semi-circular block.
http://freespace.virgin.net/gareth.james/virtual/Optics/Refraction/refraction.html

Provides a detailed description of refraction, perhaps more useful to the teacher than a student.
http://www.play-hookey.com/optics/refract1.html

Alter the angle of incidence and refractive indices of the transparent substances in this simultation of refraction.
http://www.sciencejoywagon.com/physicszone/lesson/otherpub/wfendt/refraction.htm

 

Lenses
Here you can use a simulation to adjust the focal length and position of an object in relation to a convex lens. Observe what happens to the image.
http://freespace.virgin.net/gareth.james/virtual/Optics/Lens/lens.html

In this animation you can alter the position of an object in relation to convex and concave lenses.
http://www.kettering.edu/~drussell/Demos/RayTrace/Lenses.html

 

Telescopes
Provides information on the early development of the Telescope
http://es.rice.edu:80/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Things/telescope.html

Go to "How Stuff Works" to find a mass of information on telescope history, construction, and optics.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/telescope35.ht

 

Hubble Space Telescope
Shows some of the best pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope
http://www.seds.org/hst/hst.html

Provides more information on the Hubble Space Telescope and some of its discoveries.
http://amazing-space.stsci.edu

Where is the Hubble Telescope now? Use this web site to track its exact position.
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTime/Jtrack/welcome.html

 

Microscopes
A short history of the development of the microscope.
http://www.nobel.se/physics/educational/microscopes/1.htm

 

Photography (History)
Here you can view some of the best photographs by Ansell Adams, Americas most famous landscape photographer.
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/adams

Contains information of Matthew Brady, a Civil War photographer. Includes an account of the process he had to go through to make a photo.
http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/brady/bradcont.html

Overview of 100 years of photography in America.
http://www.pbs.org/ktca/americanphotography/

Read about the history of photography and explore exhibits at the American Museum of Photography.
http://www.photographymuseum.com

 

Photography Techniques
Use these pages from Photo.net to read about how light and lighting effects are used in photography.
http://www.photo.net/photo/tutorial/light.html

The Kodak web site provides comprehensive resources on all aspects of photography. For a photography tutorial check out
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/nav/takingPics.shtml and
http://www.kodak.com

Here you can discover how forensic scientists use photography to record evidence at a crime scene.
http://www.crime-scene-investigator.net/csi-photo.html

 

Digital Photography and TV
This is Kodak’s web site on digital photography. How it works and how to do it.
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/nav/digital.shtml

 

Vision
Here you can find out how the human eye works and try out a few experiments on vision.
http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/CC/vision_background.html

A complete online book about vision and perception.
http://www.yorku.ca/eye/thejoy.htm

This is a really exciting about all the senses, with an excellent section on the sense of vision.
http://www.hhmi.org/senses

Have some fun with these sensation and perception tutorials.
http://psych.hanover.edu/Krantz/sen_tut.html

Students will find text of this site about the retina and photoreception is very difficult to follow but there are some great photomicrographs.
http://webvision.med.utah.edu

 

Optical Illusions
On this site you can view some of the optical illusions created by the artist Maurits C. Escher, a master of optical illusions, and others.
http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/o/opticalillusion.html

For more information on Escher try http://www.iproject.com/escher/escher100.html

Have fun with optical illusions at
http://www.optillusions.com/

Find some interesting examples of optical illusions at
http://www.eyetricks.com/illusions.htm

 

Animal Vision
Shows images through the eyes of a honey bee and includes some explanation of these images.
http://cvs.anu.edu.au/andy/beye/beyehome.htm

Provides a view of the world through some animal eyes. (What does a diver look like to a shark hmmm?)
http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/psych26/umvelt.htm

Find out about night vision and animal eyes in the Kalahari Desert.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kalahari/nightvision.html

 

Lasers and Fiber Optics
Main page for a list of twenty great achievements of the 20th century. Leads to discussion of lasers and fiber optics and one on imaging. Copyright indicates the National Academy of Engineering.
http://www.greatachievements.org/

Here you can find out why your phone calls don’t leak out of optical fibers.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/critical_angle.html

Read a short history of fiber optics at
http://www.sff.net/people/Jeff.Hecht/history.html

Find timelines on optics at
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/timeline/

and
http://www.newton.mec.edu/Brown/TE/HOT/TIMELINES/FIBER_OPTICS/fiber_optics_timeline.html

 

Famous Scientists

Einstein
Provides biographical information on Albert Einstein
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/

Galileo
Provides information on the life and times of Galileo
http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo

Newton
A web site with information on the most famous physicist of all.
http://www.newton.cam.ac.uk/newtlife.html

Read about Newton, his life and experiments. Follow links to Snell and other important figures from the science of optics.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/newton_isaac.shtml

 

General
Consists a series of slides which provide a synopsis of the optics and the electromagnetic spectrum.
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/light/spectrum.html

Here you can find out more about light and how it is used in astronomy.
http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/light

Contains a variety of "movies" geared toward students on science, health and technology subjects.
http://www.brainpop.com/

This site has activities to do related to light.
http://www.miamisci.org/af/sln/dracula/

Use the "The How Things Work Website" to find out about what makes things like fluoresecent tubes and light bulbs tick. You can also ask general physics questions as well.
http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu/HTW//

This site provides extensive information on the nature of light and the history of optics.
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/index.html

 

History of Optics (General)

Provides a short biography of Joseph Swan, an early pioneer of electric lighting.
http://146.201.224.61/optics/timeline/people/swan.html

Provides information on the development of the arc lamp.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_lamp

An easy to read and much abbreviated history of optics may be found at
http://www.hometown.aol.com/WSRNet/D1/hist.htm

 

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