Summary
Poke a small hole in a dark box and the world outside appears upside-down on the back wall -- a camera obscura. Deep Look tests different holes and boxes to find which one makes the clearest picture.
Viewer safety
All ages
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Talk about it
Light travels in straight lines. When rays from a bright scene pass through a tiny hole, they cross and land on the far wall as an upside-down image. Changing the hole size or box shape changes how sharp the picture is -- so you can test designs and compare results.
- Why does the image in a camera obscura appear upside-down?
- How does the size of the hole change the picture?
- How could you test which box design makes the clearest image?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: light, image, pinhole, test.
Try it: Make a pinhole in foil over one end of a tube and look toward a window. Write which hole size gave the clearest, and why.