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In this activity, we are going to be thinking about how light travels to help us make predictions.
Light travels in straight lines from a light source. It travels in waves and it does not need any particles to travel. This is why sunlight reaches us and we can see stars - because light can travel in a vacuum (space).
These rays or beams, bounce off objects and this light then travels into our eyes and allows us to see.
Our eye muscle is made up of several complex parts that work together, to help us see our surroundings and make sure our eyes do not get damaged by light.
Because we have learnt so much about light, we can begin to make predictions and notice patterns.
For example, if we shine a torch at a wall and put our hand in the way, we can predict that some of the light will hit our hand and bounce back and the light that does not hit our hand will continue travelling, shining on the wall. This will create a shadow because some of the light has been blocked by our hand.
Then we can start thinking about changes we could make, such as changing the angle of the light - what would happen to the shadow? Or adding more than one light source - what happens to the light travelling now?
Mirrors are interesting when it comes to light because they reflect all of the light back, at the same angle, which is what allows us to see ourselves and use mirrors to help us in other ways. So by changing the surface we shine a light onto, we can create different results!
In this activity, we will be looking at how light travels.
Let's get started.
