Mirrors

Middle Son has been studying light and co-incidentally, I picked up five small mirrors at a recent sale, for the princely sum of 50p.

The younger children set up this activity and I used it to get Middle Son to give explanations.

First, they set up three mirrors at right angles to each other using blue tack and tape. They put a triangle of paper on the horizontal mirror and observed how many images they could see. They put other objects on the horizontal mirrors. There appeared to be four triangles,  and four of everything else, as the reflected image was reflected.

The next step was to add in the final two mirrors to make a cube with a side missing. We tried to count the number of images. At this point, there should be an infinite number due to multiple reflected images reflecting. My camera doesn't give the number of images justice but gives an idea.  You are looking into a cube of mirrors and it is possible to see at least nine images of the camera.

This activity was good for us as it worked, at different levels, for the children. The younger children learnt about reflection and Middle Son had to give explanations.

I may well repeat this, for the little ones, as they enjoyed making patterns with the mirrors.