Light Reflection & Vision

Common sources of light include the sun, light bulbs and lasers.

Yes. For our eyes to see objects, light must reflect off the objects and enter our eyes. Without light, we cannot see.

Light travels in straight lines and is reflected off things (bounces off them).

A laser is a very narrow and concentrated beam of light.

Fog is made up of tiny particles that the laser light reflects off of. That reflected light is detected by our eyes.

The camera obscura models a human eye.

This happens because light always travels in a straight line. BERT appears upside down because if you trace the path of light of his feet through the camera obscura, the feet end up on top. If you trace the straight path of light reflected off his head, it ends up at the bottom of the camera obscura. The same thing happens in our eyes!

Another lens can help focus the image, just like glasses that help people read.

Yes, any object you can see must reflect light. If it did not reflect light you wouldn't be able to see it.

CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray discs are all read by small lasers that are found in the disc player. A laser shines on the disc and reflects off of it allowing the laser to “read” the information on the disc, which is translated electronically to music or movies.