Objective:
To demonstrate how size affects a star’s apparent brightness.
Standards:
Objects in the Sky (sky object properties, locations, and movements).
Materials:
two flashlights, aluminum foil, pencil, two sheets of blank paper.
Procedure:
Cover the lens end of one of the flashlights with a piece of aluminum foil.
Using the pencil, make a hole in the middle of the piece of aluminum foil about the size of your index finger.
Place the sheets of paper on a table a few inches apart.
Darken the room and hold one flashlight about six inches above each sheet of paper.
Observe the differences in the light patterns on the paper.
Science behind It:
The uncovered flashlight produced a bigger and brighter circle of light on the paper. The size of a star, just like the size of the flashlight opening, affects the brightness of that star. Therefore, the larger the star, the brighter the light seen on Earth will be. Stars have many different sizes and their overall magnitude or brightness is determined by the size, temperature, and distance from Earth.
Tags: Aluminum Foil, Apparent Brightness, Ascii, Bidi, Blank Paper, Cambria, Charset, Courier New, Div, Earth, Family Auto, Flashlight, Flashlights, font definitions, Footer, Hole In The Middle, Index Finger, Light Patterns, Magnitude, Mso, Orphan, Paper Science, Paper Source, Pencil, Pitch, Props, sans serif, Six Inches, Sky Object, Style Definitions, Style Name, Style Type, Temperature, Unicode
