What's this?

Today, your child brought home a 3x5 card with a square cut out of the middle.  The square was covered with a piece of foil.  If you look closely, you will find a pin prick in the middle of the foil. What is it?  Art?  Recycling?  No, it's a magnifier.

That's right the pin hole is a magnifier.  This was one experiment we did in connection with our discussion of light. If you hold the card near your eye and look at small writing, for example a newspaper, (0r a computer screen also works great because it has it's own light source)  you will find the the writing is enlarged.  This is possible because the closer you are to an object the image creates a larger image on your retina.  The blurriness or clearness of the image had to do with how your eye is able to bend the light.  To look up this "exploration" on the web, click here.

If you child did not bring home the pinhole magnifier you can create one with your fingers:

We also learned about light and color from Bill Nye the science guy.