In this experiment your students will use 2 magnifying glasses to investigate magnification and how light beams bend.

What you will need:

• A book
• 2 magnifying glasses

What you will do:

1 Open your book to a page full of writing.

2 Use one magnifying glass to look at the words.  What effect does moving it up and down have?

3 Now use 2 magnifying glasses, one on top of the other.  Move them up and down slowly together.

4 Now try moving them apart—what happens when the top one is closer to your eye and the bottom one is closer together?  What happened when you move them closer together?

What is going on?

The magnifying lenses have a specific focal point, which is the distance from the page that the magnifying glass makes the words the largest.  Once you cross this focal distance something amazing happens because the light coming from the right side of the book crosses over to the left, and the left crosses to the right, so everything suddenly seems back to front!

Monster Challenge:

• Try this experiment with different sized magnifying glasses. Are the focal lengths different?

Full Teachers’ Notes are available with the experiment.

Get this experiment here or as part of a bundle of Light Experiments here.