John Carlo Sanchez IV – St. Peter
Remar San Diego
Paulo Fernandez
Bending light
Materials:
A Plastic Bottle – preferably clear and empty.
Laser Pen, or other directed light source.
Water.
Procedure:
Take the plastic bottle and poke a hole in it with a pin. I recommend expanding it a bit, the hole in my bottle was about 2mm in radius. The trick is to create a large enough hole to encompass the entire laser beam, but not large enough to have the water just pour out uncontrollably.
Now, cover the hole with the duct tape and poke another hole through the not-for-long sealed hole. The duct tape is not absolutely necessary, but it will help directing the laser ray towards the hole. You would be amazed how difficult it can be to aim when water is pouring out on top of you…
Seal the hole with your finger and fill the bottle with water. When it’s full, close the cap. The pressure inside the bottle will prevent the water from coming out through the hole.
Put the bottle somewhere wet, turn your laser beam on and point it at the hole. Release the cap.
Water should be coming out now, and if you aim your laser light properly, they should refract the beam towards the surface and appear slightly reddish (or.. whatever color your laser beam is).
Explanation:
Practically light is always traveling on a straight line, at least it comes across something that can reflect it. Different surfaces deflect light differently. As shown in the experiment light beams travel within the water, some of it got out and that’s why we see the stream of water in other color and some it continued with the water refracting within it and that light the basin.