Today you get to concentrate light, specifically the heat, from the Sun into a very small area. Normally, the sunlight would have filled up the entire area of the lens, but you’re shrinking this down to the size of the dot.
Magnifying lenses, telescopes, and microscopes use this idea to make objects appear different sizes by bending the light. When light passes through a different medium (from air to glass, water, a lens…) it changes speed and usually the angle at which it’s traveling. A prism splits incoming light into a rainbow because the light bends as it moves through the prism. A pair of eyeglasses will bend the light to magnify the image.
Materials
- Sunlight
- Glass jar
- Nail that fits in the jar
- 12” thread
- Hair from your head
- 12” string
- 12” fishing line
- 12” yarn
- Paperclip
- Magnifying glass
- Fire extinguisher
- Adult help
The activity that uses those items is in the student worksheet. The link for the student worksheet and exercises is underneath the video.
what do you need the jar, nail, thread, hair, string, fishing line, yarn, paperclip, and fire extinguisher for?
No, you need to adjust the focal point more carefully. Watch for where the light is concentrated down to a pinpoint.
We were not able to get anything to burn. Is it subject to a time of day or year?
Brings back the good ol’ days 🙂
cool 🙂
The materials listed are for the second part of the experiment. The video covers the first part and includes safety information, and then follow the steps for suspending the nail in the jar for the second part located just below the video.
The materials listed are for a completely different experiment
In the video, the person speculates that the paper might not burn because it is reflective. I suspected that lack of oxygen was the bigger culprit and when we raised our paper off the ground, we were able to quickly burn a hole through it.