Optics & Light Phenomena
📋 What it is
Rainbows, mirrors, and lenses happen because light bends and reflects in predictable ways.
🗣️ Coach says
Light plays by rules. It reflects off mirrors at a matching angle, bends (refracts) when it passes into water or glass, and splits into colours through a prism or raindrop — that’s a rainbow. Every light “wonder” is light obeying the same handful of rules.
🧠 Memory hook
Light reflects, bends, and splits into colours — every rainbow is light following rules.
😂 Giggle
Why did the air pressure trick work so well?
It was under a lot of pressure to succeed!
😲 Whoa!
A rainbow is actually a full circle of colour — we usually see only the top arc because the ground cuts off the rest.
✅ Quick check: Why does a straw look “broken” where it enters a glass of water?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
Light bends (refracts) as it passes from water to air, shifting the straw’s image so it looks broken.
Refraction bends light between materials, displacing the image.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Put a spoon in a glass of water and look from the side — it appears bent where it enters the water (refraction).