Making A Kaleidoscope

INTRODUCTION: The basic question I'm trying to answer for my PBL is how does the view change when you add more mirrors to your kaleidoscope? I am going to be making a total of 4 kaleidoscopes for this project. The first one will have three mirrors, the second one will have four mirrors, the third one will have five mirrors and the fourth one will have six mirrors.

MATERIALS:

SCISSORS ADHESIVE

CARDBOARD SELLOTAPE

MIRROR STRIPS PLAIN GLASSES

BUTTER PAPER NEWSPAPER

RULER BROKEN BANGLES

GIFT WRAPPING PAPER

PROCEDURE:

STEP 1- First take three mirror strips.

STEP 2- Arrange them in a triangular shape and tape them.

STEP 3- Then, take the cardboard and draw lines in the size of the mirror strips.

STEP 4- Cut the excess cardboard off from the end and adjacent side.

STEP 5- Fold the cardboard along the lines.

STEP 6- Fold it as a box.

STEP 7- Put tape around the box.

STEP 8- Now take the triangular model and wrap newspaper around it and tape it.

STEP 9- Now take the box and place it on top of a small square cardboard the size of the opening.

STEP 10- Then place a hole in the center of the small square cardboard.

STEP 11- Take the box and place adhesive to the base of the box.

STEP 12- Stick the small square cardboard to the box.

STEP 13- Tape the small square cardboard to the box.

STEP 14- Pierce through the hole.

STEP 15- On the other side of the box, where it's open, insert the triangular model.

STEP 16- Then take a small square plain glass piece and place it inside the box.

STEP 17- Now place the broken bangles in a cup and slowly dump it inside where the plain glass is.

STEP 18- Then take another glass piece and place it on top of the box.

STEP 19- Now tape the glass piece to the box.

STEP 20- Now apply adhesive to the edges of the box.

STEP 21- Take a small butter paper and place it on the box and stick well.

STEP 22- Glue the excess butter paper on the box.

STEP 23- Now apply adhesive to the box and stick some gift wrapping paper on the box.

STEP 24- Make sure it sticks well and that it covers the whole box.

STEP 25- You can now enjoy your kaleidoscope.

(Repeat, but add more mirrors to make kaleidoscopes with 4, 5, and 6 mirrors)

ESSENTIAL UNDERSTANDING: To do this project, you have to have a basic understanding of what illusions light creates when it bounces off different shapes. The view changes drastically when light bounces off a triangle as opposed to a square, pentagon, or hexagon. Naturally, it's is important to have some knowledge of shapes. You go more in depth with shapes in geometry.

DRIVING QUESTION: How would the view change by making different shapes with the rectangular mirrors?

DIAGRAMS:

INVESTIGATION: The purpose of this project was to see how the view through a kaleidoscope changed when you added more mirrors to the kaleidoscope.

(MATERIALS AND PROCEDURE ABOVE)

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS:

Why are triangles used to make kaleidoscopes?

Equilateral triangles are used so that, when the object bounces of the image, what you see is a physkedelic version of the object translated across the surface of the triangles. This version of the object is, of course, the whole point of a kaleidoscope and triangles are best suited to carry out a kaleidoscope's intended effect.

How would the view change using 4 mirrors?

When you twist the kaleidoscope instead of seeing the image bounced back in a triangular shape you see the image bounced back in a rectangular shape since the image is being bounced off 4 mirrors instead of 3.

5 mirrors?

The view through the kaleidoscope changes drastically compared to the view seen through a 3 mirror kaleidoscope. The images bounced back form pentagons and are more complicated.

6 mirrors?

The view shown through the last kaleidoscope shows the beads and such made up of hexagons. As you turn the kaleidoscope it's very obvious that 6 mirrors were used since, although they vary in size, the beads always come out having a hexagonal shape.

What would happen if the number of mirrors increased each time?

The image seen through the kaleidoscope gradually gets more intricate corresponding with how many mirrors you see. 5 mirrors give you pentagonal images, 6 mirrors give you hexagonal images, and so on.