We can see a glass
beaker in the bottom of a water filled container because of the difference
in the refractive index between glass and water. But what would happen if
we placed a beaker into a liquid with the same refractive index as glass?
A small
beaker is placed into a larger beaker, filled with virgin olive oil.
As
you can see the beaker is almost invisible.
The trick. Place olive oil
onto a large beaker. Into this olive filled beaker place a smaller beaker.
Bring the setup into the class. Announce to the class that the beaker
is filled with magic liquid that can quickly repair damaged glassware.
In front of the class, break a glass flask and place the pieces into
the beaker as shown on the left.
Empty the pieces into the beaker
with the olive oil and after saying some magic words, pull out the small flask
that is in the olive oil.
View the video of this trick.
Another great trick is to change the direction of a painted arrow. For this trick you will need an A4 paper with two arrows printed as shown on the right and a beaker of water.
View the video on the right. Students are encouraged to perfect the performance of this illusion in a video which explains the science behind the magic trick.
Is it 108 or 801? Really! Try again. Play the video on the right to see a cool refractive trick.
