LightWorks

Mixing coloured light
Three lamps project spots of light of the primary colours, red, blue and green onto a screen and overlapping them produces the secondary colours or white. An object in front of the lamps produces coloured shadows.

Anamorphs
Children draw on a board observing the reflection in a curved mirror which distorts the images. Pieces are provided which appear as geometric shapes in the mirror. There is also an extremely distorted image which you can only recognise using a small cylindrical mirror.

Pin-hole cameras
At the front of each of three 'cameras' is a hole: small, larger and much larger with a lens. You can point them at a bright object or light. The inner tube can be moved to focus the inverted images on the small screen inside.

Light table
Coloured gels are placed on a light table. Pupils can use them to show the effect of subtracting colours from white light. This is in contrast to the previous exhibit in which lights are added to one another.

Model eyes
Pupils can dismantle large eye models into five parts and reassemble them again. They can also test themselves for colour blindness and use spectacles to view a picture in 3-D.

Frozen shadows
Bright light is projected onto a photoluminescent screen for a few seconds. The screen then emits light for a time. Placing an object like a hand in front of the light casts a shadow that remains frozen afterwards.

Optical fibres
A bundle of optical fibres can be pointed at a lamp, causing light to travel along the fibres and emerge at the other end. You place translucent or opaque coloured sheets in front of the light to investigate transmission and reflection.

Bendy mirrors
Two large mirrors are held in a frame. Both are convex (curved outwards) but one is curved horizontally and the other vertically. Children can look at their images distorted in height and width.

Mirror maze
Pupils place a number of small vertical mirrors on a large horizontal one to investigate multiple reflections. There is also a box with partitions. By arranging a series of mirrors you can see an image at one corner of the box by peering through a window at the other.

Laser amazer
A pair of lasers produce beams of light which travel around a box with a transparent top. You rotate a mirror to reflect the beams to a number of lenses and other mirrors which you can also turn. The beams are made visible using smoke from joss-sticks.

Mirror drawing
A piece of paper with simple designs on it can be placed under a small screen, where it can not be seen but can be drawn on. A mirror behind shows a reflection of the paper. Pupils try to draw round the shapes.g knobs you can move these shapes through the material, feeling the resistance to movement which shows their viscosity.

Zoetrope
A cylindrical drum with slots around it sits on a bearing. There is a series of images on the inside of the drum. When you look through the slots while the drum is rotated, the images will appear to move.