Activity 1: Open the Laser Reflection Gizmo
Vocabulary: angle of incidence, angle of reflection, laser, law of reflection, plane mirror, reflection
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
Im
...
Activity 1: Open the Laser Reflection Gizmo
Vocabulary: angle of incidence, angle of reflection, laser, law of reflection, plane mirror, reflection
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
Imagine you shine a flashlight directly at a mirror, as shown below.
1. Draw an arrow showing the direction
you think the beam of light will most
likely reflect off the mirror. The arrow will
most likely bounce back to the same
direction of the flashlight.
2. Suppose you tilt the mirror. Draw an
arrow showing the direction the beam
will most likely reflect off the mirror now.
The arrow will also be slanted, so the
arrow will be going slightly above the
flashlight and maybe to the side.
Gizmo Warm-up
Flashlights produce wide beams of light that
have various wavelengths. A laser, on the other
hand, is a narrow beam of light with only one
wavelength. All the waves in a laser beam are
parallel to one another. As a result, lasers are
ideal for studying reflection, or how waves
bounce off a surface.
Using the Laser Reflection Gizmo, you can
adjust the position of a laser beam and mirror to
study how light behaves when it is reflected.
1. Drag the Angle slider back and forth. Describe what happens to the reflected laser beam: If
I drag the Angle slider forward, then the laser beam will be reflected up at a 90 degree angle
or less. If I drag the Angle slider back the laser beam will be reflected down at a 90 degree
angle or less.
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