DISCO TIME | Light Reflection Experiment

DISCO TIME | Light Reflection Experiment

Apr 09, 2020

The sun has set, and now it's time to boogie! Make your very own disco ball to illuminate your kiddos impromptu dance party!

Disco-Ball-compressed

Get creative – replace the ball with other items you can find at home like a kitchen towel core, or a bowl!

Bouncing Light Beams

It's no coincidence that disco balls are commonly made with shiny mirrors. Let's go closer into how light behaves with different materials.

Light starts off from a source, like a torch or the Sun, and travels out in a straight line. As the beam hits an object, it gets reflected! The surface and colour of the object will affect how the beams of light get reflected.

A smooth surface can reflect all the light back easily, which is why we can see our reflection clearly in mirrors! Try finding your reflection in a calm pond. Drop a rock in to make a huge splash – what happens to your reflection?

Some surfaces like paper may seem smooth to our hands but actually have many tiny bumps on the surface that can’t be seen with our eyes. In this case, the light beams that bounce off rough surfaces are scattered and dispersed!

Experiment at home!

Test out the reflective power of materials in your home! Get your kid to gather some objects like a mirror, books, a blanket, a plate and so on. Go to a dark room and place the object on the floor next to a wall. Use a torchlight or a laser (be careful!) and shine a beam down to the object. If the object is a good light reflector, you’ll be able to see a spot of light reflected on the wall! Record down the size, shape and brightness of the spot on the wall for each object and rank their reflective power in a chart.

Learn more about LIGHT with our science kit!

Periscope toy
Step-by-step building instructions
HOT! Experiment Pack
Worksheet to guide your learning journey

Science concepts:

How light travels
Reflection of light

What do you learn:

With a periscope, you can look around walls, corners or other obstacles. Submarines have periscopes so that the people inside can see what is above the surface of the water. Try building your own periscope and learn what you can do to see around bends. This is all possible because light travels in a straight line! Be sure to try out your periscope at different corners at home and remember to be safe!

For the HOT! (Hands-on-Time) segment, you can use the cards to test how light travels. The worksheet will guide you through the steps for this scientific investigation. Have fun!