Physics
Optics
SimulationOptical Microscope
Turn a hand-inked school microscope to learn its parts, focus with the coarse and fine knobs, and look at onion skin cells at 40×, 100× and 400×. See inside to follow the light path and the gears that move the stage.
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SimulationMirrors, Lenses and Mixing Light
Drag a flower and an eye to trace how light reflects off a plane mirror into the eye and where the image appears; compare upright/inverted and larger/smaller views through convex and concave lenses and mirrors; mix red, green and blue light, zoom into screen pixels and predict the color of a red apple under green light.
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SimulationInterference & Diffraction Bench
Explain the colored bands and black top of a standing soap film with two reflected waves and the phase flip on reflection, measure Δx = Lλ/d with a laser double slit and see that energy is conserved even when light plus light makes darkness. Explore single-slit diffraction, gratings and resolution qualitatively, and try precision technologies that use interference: anti-reflection coatings, CD/DVD track spacing and holograms.
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SimulationBuild a Laser
Fire photons at a single atom to see absorption and spontaneous and stimulated emission, then build and switch on a ruby laser from a rod, a pump lamp and two mirrors. Find population inversion and the lasing threshold, compare laser light with a flashlight (directionality, monochromaticity, coherence) and send a picture down an optical fiber with laser pulses.
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SimulationInside an LCD Pixel
Block light with two or three polarizers and bring it back, then spread one LCD pixel out layer by layer to see the twisted liquid crystal turn the light's vibration direction and a voltage untwist it to switch the light off. Mix colors with red, green and blue subpixels, identify the polarization of different lights with a sensor and polarizer, and explore polarized sunglasses and 3D movie glasses.
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2:38VideoRefraction, Total Internal Reflection, and Optical Fiber
Shows refraction, refractive index and Snell's law through wavefronts slowing at a boundary, sweeps the incidence angle up to the critical angle (about 42° for glass) and total internal reflection, then follows light trapped by total reflection in a curved glass rod and an optical fiber carrying data. No narration; explained through subtitles.
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