Today’s homework. A bigger story.
Pick a topic, meet the people behind the ideas, and try something together.
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Where does the light go?
Try lining up three tiny holes and shining a flashlight through them. What do you predict will happen if you move one card?
The legacy behind the lesson
In Cairo, Ibn al-Haytham spent time under house arrest. He used that time at home to study light through hundreds of experiments.
Some thinkers said that eyes send out rays. Ibn al-Haytham tested this idea and explained that light reflects off objects and enters our eyes.
Ibn al-Haytham used a camera obscura: a dark box with a tiny hole. Light coming through the hole makes a picture on the opposite wall.
“How could you test an idea about light at home?”
Make a tiny light laboratory
Gather: A flashlight, three pieces of card, sticky tack, and a grown-up.
- 1
Ask a grown-up to make a small hole in each card.
- 2
Stand the three cards upright with the holes in a row. Place a flashlight behind the first card.
- 3
Try to shine the light through all three holes onto a wall.
- 4
Move just the middle card. Predict what will happen, then try it. Draw what you notice.
Use a flashlight, never a laser. Do not shine light into anyone’s eyes or look at the sun.
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