Fingerprints for light sources.

Using a diffraction grating, you can observe that what seems to be a single color of light may really be a combination of colors, called a spectrum. You can also compare the spectra produced by different light sources.

A shoe box or a [...]

When you overlap materials with repetitive lines, you create moire patterns.

When you look through one chain-link fence at another, you sometimes see a pattern of light and dark lines that shifts as you move. This pattern, called a moire pattern, appears when two repetitive patterns overlap. Moire patterns are created [...]

Dark-colored materials both absorb and emit energy more readily than light-colored materials.

Using a postcard made of temperature-sensitive liquid crystal material, you can monitor temperature changes. By observing these changes, you can show that dark materials absorb and reemit the energy contained in light more readily than [...]

Create giant bubbles

Bubbles are fascinating. What gives them their shape? What makes them break or last? What causes the colors and patterns in the soap film, and why do they change?

Measuring cups and spoons. The strong mutual attraction of water molecules for each other is known as surface [...]