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Bend light through water

Instructions

Cut a 5mm wide slit in one end of the shoebox.
Cut a similar slit in the other end. Turn off the lights and shine the torchlight through the slits. Hold a piece of white paper at the end – you should see a thin slit of light on the paper.

Now place a straight-sided glass of water inside the shoebox in between the slits. Shine the torch again through the slits (and the glass) and onto the paper. What do you observe?

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You will need:

A shoebox
A torch
Scissors
White paper
A dark room
A straight-sided glass of water (
short enough to sit within with the shoebox)

When you look at the light as it shines through the glass of water in the box, you should see that the rectangle of light on the paper spreads out.

As light enters the water in the glass, it is bent, because light moves more slowly through water than air. This makes the light ‘spread out’ so it creates a broader beam of light. 

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