A kaleidoscope is a tube where a miracle lives! Looking into it, the child enters the looking glass with wonderful patterns. Children's imagination from pieces of colored glass can create a real fairy tale. Want to give your child a little miracle? You can do it yourself with a kaleidoscope. At the same time, the baby will feel like a magician who is involved in the birth of a fairy tale. The child will know how the toy is arranged, learn to work with scissors and paper. In addition, this is a small lesson in logic and geometry. This article will also be useful to middle-class labor education teachers. Students at this age will be interested and easy to make a kaleidoscope with their own hands out of paper.
The emergence of a miracle toy
For the first time in Russia, a toy appeared thanks to Lomonosov. He studied the properties of glass and admired the geometry. His three first inventions are still kept in the Hermitage.
Unfortunately, they were not properly appreciated and another scientist received the laurels of the discoverer. This happened due to the fact that the patent law was published only in 1812. Officially, physicist David Brewster made a do-it-yourself kaleidoscope. He registered a patent for it. The physicist conducted experiments on the polarization of light rays and noticed that if fragments of glass were put in a cylinder with mirrors, they would reflect and create unusual patterns and patterns.
Types of Kaleidoscopes
The following types of "magic tubes" are distinguished:
- The name of Petkunas. The toy consists of a tube, which is closed with a transparent plexiglass cover on one side, and with a second plug, in which not only multi-colored fragments are placed, but also chains, small rings.
- Oil apparatus. The toy is filled with liquid with oil, which contains multi-colored crystals. The drawings here change smoothly, as the fish move in the aquarium.
- Pneumatic toy. Instead of glasses, a kaleidoscope is filled with feathers. An amazing model that is equipped with a pear, with which air enters the toy. The feathers fly up and swirl, creating unusual patterns.
- Taleidoscope. This toy is different from the previous ones. Here is an optical lens. Through the tube you need to look at the surrounding objects. They appear in mirrors many times, creating bizarre shapes and colors.
Master class: “Doing a miracle with our own hands”
You can make a kaleidoscope with your child. For work you will need:
- acrylic mirror;
- glass cutter;
- Scotch;
- rhinestones, beads, multi-colored glass;
- texture film (oracle);
- ruler made of metal;
- Plastic container;
- a tube for paper towels (diameter 3.5 cm);
- universal glue.
How to make a kaleidoscope with your own hands?
A piece of acrylic mirror must be cut into three parts measuring 8 by 12 cm. It is better to do this with a cutter on a special rug. Next, connect the pieces with tape. You should get a prism.
On the tube made of cardboard, mark the length of the mirrors and add another 2.5 cm. Cut off the excess part of the cylinder.
Place the tube on the texture paper and draw a circle. Add 2.5 cm. Cut a hole in the middle of the paper.
At the edges of the circle cut out "beams" 2.5 cm long.
Take the container. Place a pipe on it and circle again. Add 1.3 cm.
Make cuts on a plastic circle. You will get a lens that you need to push into the pipe.
The same needs to be done for the other end of the pipe.
Cut a piece of texture film corresponding to the length of the toy. Tape it with a tube.
We put a prism from the mirrors into the tube and pour iridescent “jewels” inside.
We glue the plastic plug to the end of the pipe. Glue the edge of the cylinder with adhesive tape.
So you made a wonderful kaleidoscope with your own hands!
Entertaining physics lesson
In addition to the fact that children will see how to make a kaleidoscope of paper with their own hands, you can introduce them in practice to physical phenomena. The teacher or parent as an experiment can take to create a prism: mirrors, ordinary and organic glass, metal plates.
In the process of working on a toy, try to insert a prism from different materials there. For example, ordinary clear glass is an excellent element for a kaleidoscope. It reflects the rays of light, like a mirror. Organic glass is not suitable for these purposes because of the matte rough surface.
By inserting a metal prism, you cannot see the effect. In order to obtain reflection, it is necessary that the surface of the plates be perfectly smooth, then the rays of light will have one direction, and reflection will be visible.
You can complicate the task and show children the reflection from different angles. For example, by connecting two plates at an angle of 90 degrees, you can see three images. Seventy-two degrees will give 4 images, and sixty - five pictures.
From this toy were crazy in Europe and in America. For the first time as a result of laboratory research, the world received a thing from which millions were delighted. The kaleidoscope was a huge commercial success. This optical toy paved the way for the invention of animation and cinema.