ABC Wednesday

K is for Kaleidoscope



"A kaleidoscope is a tube of mirrors containing loose colored beads, pebbles or other small colored objects. The viewer looks in one end and light enters the other end, reflecting off the mirrors. Typically there are two rectangular lengthwise mirrors. Setting of the mirrors at 45° creates eight duplicate images of the objects, six at 60°, and four at 90°. As the tube is rotated, the tumbling of the colored objects presents the viewer with varying colors and patterns. Any arbitrary pattern of objects shows up as a beautiful symmetric pattern because of the reflections in the mirrors. A two-mirror model yields a pattern or patterns isolated against a solid black background, while a three-mirror (closed triangle) model yields a pattern that fills the entire field".

extracted from a great article on Kaleidoscopes by Evad that can be accessed here.

If you would like to make your own 'hold-in-the-hand-and-up-to-the-eye' Kaleidoscope you can find instructions here.



Kids of all ages love them, - go ahead and make one or two, or a dozen!



And if you would like to have fun creating a virtual kaleidoscope, here is the place to go.

Visit ABC Wednesday to see what other intriguing things K stands for by clicking here.