Waves+and+Light+Lab


 * __Light Station Lab__ **

**Station # 1: Color Wheel** __Problem-__ What is white light made of??? 1. Record your observations... When you spin the wheel, the colors become white blurs, and the colors get lighter as it spins. 2. List the seven colors that make up white light. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Indigo, Violet. 3. Describe how refraction allows us to see the visible spectrum. All the lights coming off the colors have a different bend which causes our eyes to see them differently. 4. Explain why you think you observed what you did when the color wheel was spun. When all the visible colors twist together they all form white light, so that is why we saw them as a white blur.


 * Station # 2: Disappearing Stamp**

__Problem-__ Why does an object seem to disappear when placed under a beaker of water?? 1. Record your observations... You can see the stamp if you look at it from the top, looking through the water, but you cannot see it from an angle. 2. Explain how the stamp seems to "disappear." The light is reflected out, so the color turns to white light. 3. Draw a diagram with labels that supports your explanation. Label the air, the water, and which medium is more or less dense. Water = more dense medium Air = less dense medium 4. Discuss why the angle at which light passes through a medium affects how it bends. In water, the light goes straight up, and it bends in the air, so that is why you see **refraction**.


 * Station # 3: Catch a Wave**

__Problem-__ How can the frequency of a transverse wave be increased??? 1. Use your notes and draw a diagram of a transverse wave. Label the crest, trough, and wavelength.

2. Describe how you increase the frequency of a wave. You can decrease the wavelength or change the electro-magnetic radiation type. 3. Describe how the wave changed in appearance when the frequency was changed. If the frequency is increased, then the wave gets shorter, faster, and close together, but if it is decreased the wavelength gets longer, slower and farther apart. 4.Create a diagram to support your answer to # 3. 5. What happens when the frequency of light waves increase or decrease? The wavelengths get closer together or farther apart. (longer or shorter)


 * Station # 4: Disappearing Penny**

__Problem-__ What causes a penny at the bottom of a glass to suddenly appear as water is added to the glass??? 1.Use the definition of refraction to describe the phenomenon that you just observed. As water was added to the cup with the penny, the light bent into the cup, magnifying the penny and making it visible. 2. Draw a diagram and label to show what occured as light passed from air into the water. In this diagram, think of the dotted line as what you are seein as you look into the cup. The solid line is refraction... This is how it really happens because of the light. So when the penny would really be at the solid arrow, it seems like it is at the end of the dotted line.


 * Station # 5: Bubble Vision**

__Problem-__ How is the interference of light demonstrated utilizing bubbles??? 1. Draw the bands of colors that you see in at least one of the bubbles you observed. 2. Define diffraction and interference. Diffraction--the bending or turning of a wave Interference--the wave that forms when two or more waves of the same or similar frequencies come together. 3.Explain how the interference causes us to see the colors that you observed on the soap bubbles. Light is reflected through little slits which causes the darks and lights to alternate, causing the visible light to show up.


 * Station # 6 and # 7: Web Quests**

Procedure- Click on the "Interactive Figures" button, and explore the site!!! Use figures-- This is a great source for you to get the feel of what we are learning in class!! Put yourself in the shoes of an 8th grader at Kinard Junior Highschool... and remember... **HAVE FUN!!**
 * Go to [|www.physicsplace.com] and click on the middle book in the top row
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