A Bright Bunch of Students

Following the previous science buskers’ training session, the group thought that light would also be a good topic. So in this session, they tried out experiments to do with light. The groups investigated beads and loom bands that change colour under UV light – or outside in the sun. We also looked at mixing different colours of light and how it is different to mixing colours using paint.

2015 is the International Year of Light, and the Institute of Physics have produced a set of experiment cards you can try at home. We explored quite a few of these.

Backwards writing on paper becomes the right way when viewed through a beaker of water (left). It’s hard to write backwards, though – the ‘g’ was the wrong (er… right?) way around.

We were really surprised to be able to light an energy-saving lightbulb using static from a balloon (right).