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    Explore Light and Optics!: With 25 Great Projects
    Explore Light and Optics!: With 25 Great Projects
    Explore Light and Optics!: With 25 Great Projects
    Ebook172 pages1 hour

    Explore Light and Optics!: With 25 Great Projects

    By Anita Yasuda and Bryan Stone

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    About this ebook

    Imagine a world without light. What would it be like? Dark, cold, and lifeless! In Explore Light and Optics! With 25 Great Projects, readers ages 7 through 10 find out why light is so important to our world. We use light to communicate. Because of light, there are natural phenomena such as rainbows and the auroras. And it's light that provides living things with the energy they need to exist.

    In Explore Light and Optics!, readers learn how light travels, how the eye works, and why we can see objects. They read about optical inventions that changed the world, including microscopes, telescopes, and cameras. Kids are introduced to modern inventions such as lasers, solar planes, and the hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber optics that make it possible to transmit data all over the world.

    Through projects ranging from making a spectroscope and concocting invisible ink to creating a periscope and experimenting with lenses, children discover how light can be bent, bounced, and broken. Fun facts, jokes, cartoon illustrations and links to online primary sources spark an interest in the fascinating role light plays in our lives from the sun shining overhead to the cellphone in our back pocket.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNomad Press
    Release dateAug 22, 2016
    ISBN9781619303782
    Explore Light and Optics!: With 25 Great Projects
    Author

    Anita Yasuda

    Anita Yasuda is the author of more than one hundred books for children. She lives with her family and her dog in Huntington Beach, California.

    Read more from Anita Yasuda

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      Book preview

      Explore Light and Optics! - Anita Yasuda

      Recent science titles in the Explore Your World! Series

      Check out more titles at www.nomadpress.net

      Nomad Press

      A division of Nomad Communications

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      Copyright © 2016 by Nomad Press. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review or for limited educational use. The trademark Nomad Press and the Nomad Press logo are trademarks of Nomad Communications, Inc.

      Educational Consultant, Marla Conn

      Questions regarding the ordering of this book should be addressed to

      Nomad Press

      2456 Christian St.

      White River Junction, VT 05001

      www.nomadpress.net

      CONTENTS

      Timeline

      Introduction

      What Are Light and Optics?

      Chapter 1

      Light From the Sun

      Chapter 2

      Color Play

      Chapter 3

      Eye-mazing!

      Chapter 4

      Op-Tech

      Chapter 5

      Create with Light

      Index

      Interested in primary sources? Look for this icon.

      Use a smartphone or tablet app to scan the QR code and explore more! You can find a list of URLs on the Resources page.

      If the QR code doesn’t work, try searching the Internet with the Keyword Prompts to find other helpful sources.

      KEYWORD PROMPTS

      TIMELINE

      INTRODUCTION

      WHAT ARE LIGHT AND OPTICS?

      I spy with my little eye something that we can’t live without. Plants and humans need it. It bounces and bends. It can become heat. It travels through air and water. It’s faster than anything in the known universe. And some animals create their own. Have you guessed what it is? I spy light!

      What would happen if there was no light? Would you be able to see? Would there be food to eat? Close your eyes and think about a world with no light. What kinds of things would be impossible to do? What would happen if the sun, our biggest source of light, was gone? The world would be much different!

      You wouldn’t need a soccer ball, snowboard, or a surfboard because there would be no weather or seasons to enjoy.

      In fact, everything you know would not exist. The earth would be a big lump of rock and ice. There would be nothing to heat the land, water, or atmosphere. Plants would not be able to grow. Without plants, people and animals would not have any food. Without light, we wouldn’t be here!

      WORDS TO KNOW

      Light makes many things possible every day. Special equipment uses light so we can investigate objects too small for our eyes to see. Light also lets us explore the entire universe. Scientists are using light science to find new ways of protecting our health.

      Some objects actually produce light. Objects that make their own light are said to be luminous. The sun and fire are luminous objects. Some animals and insects, such as fireflies, create their own light. Objects that do not produce light but are lit up, such as mirrors, are said to be illuminated.

      We communicate with light by using visible light to read books and newspapers. Do you ever use the Internet? Scientists found a way to send light over optical fibers. This makes it possible to talk to friends, watch videos, and discover new websites—all because of light!

      THE HISTORY OF LIGHT

      Light makes many things possible, but what exactly is it? Can you hold it in your hands? Can you taste it or smell it? Is light something you can store in a drawer to use later? Scientists have been trying to answer questions like these for thousands of years.

      The study of light is called optics. Centuries ago, people wanted to know why they could see in the daytime and not at nighttime. They made observations about how light worked and designed experiments to test light in different ways.

      WORDS TO KNOW

      The ancient Greeks were some of the earliest people to study optics. Ancient Greeks believed in many gods and goddesses. Around 450 BCE, a philosopher named Empedocles thought that our eyes contained light rays that shone out and let people see. He believed that the goddess Aphrodite made eyes from earth, water, air, and fire, and that it was the fire that made it possible for eyes to emit light rays. That makes people sound like superheroes!

      LIGHT FROM THE TOP AND BOTTOM OF THE FIREFLY TRAVEL AT STRAIGHT ANGLES THROUGH THE HOLE TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL, WHERE THEY SWITCH TO BOTTOM AND TOP, SINCE THE LIGHT CAN’T BEND AROUND THE EDGES OF THE HOLE.

      People believed this theory for nearly 1,500 years. Beginning

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