Ingredients:
- Pencil, scissors, white cardboard or heavy white paper
- Crayons or markers, a ruler
- Cmall bowl or a large cup (3 - 4 inch, or 7 - 10 cm diameter rim)
- Paper cup
Instructions
- Use the bowl to trace a circle onto a piece of white cardboard and cut it out. With the ruler, divide it into six approximately equal sections.
- Colour the six sections with the colours of the spectrum as shown. Try to colour as smoothly and evenly as possible.
- Poke a hole through the middle of the circle and push the pencil part of the way through.
- Poke a hole in the bottom of the paper cup, a little bit larger than the diameter of the pencil. Turn the cup upside down on a piece of paper, and put the pencil through so the point rests on the paper on a table. Adjust the colour wheel's position on the pencil so that it is about 1/2 inch (1 - 2 cm) above the cup.
- Spin the pencil quickly and observe the colour wheel. Adjust as necessary so that the pencil and wheel spin easily.
What happens
The colours on the wheel are the main colours in white light. When the wheel spins fast enough, the colours all appear to blend together, and the wheel looks white. Try experimenting with different colour combinations.
Light is a kind of energy that can travel through space. Light from the sun or a light bulb looks white, but it is really a mixture of many colours. The colours in white light are red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. You can see these colours when you look at a rainbow in the sky. |
