On Friday, we took a hammer to a few light bulbs... We used the high speed camera to get a picture of the light bulb as it breaks. The first time didn't go so well because we didn't time it right, but the second time we got a sweet picture! We decided to show this in a picture of the pictures all side by side.
Over the weekend, I took some glow sticks and put them into canola oil and water. This showed the refraction of light very well. This is my essay for this photo and for the aapt.org contest:
This is a photo of a blue glow stick submerged into a glass filled with water and canola oil. The water and oil separate because oil has non polar ions and water has polar ions which do not mix. Therefore, water and oil are insoluble. The oil has a lower density than the water, so it floats on top of the water. The glow stick seems to be broken at certain points in the oil and water. This is because of refraction of light. Refraction happens when light changes from one medium to another medium. The speed of light changes in different mediums. When the light hits another medium, like the canola oil, the glow stick looks "bent" because the speed of light has decreased. Also, notice how the glow stick appears a little bit bigger in the water than in the oil. This is because as light travels through the water, it bends at odd directions and magnifies the glow stick.
Emily is entering the breaking light bulb into the contest, and Mackenzie is entering the burning lightbulb filament into the contest.
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