I took a look at the poll that I posted a while back, and it seems that the majority of people agreed that DOING THINGS led to the most effective learning. My intent was to change my writing to take your opinions into account. This is my attempt:
If you want to learn more about light, but you don't want to read about it, you can perform your own experiment! Look at this website. It shows you how to make your own holograms. You are probably thinking, I don't have time for this! Never fear! I tried making my own holograms, and it only took a few minutes to get a result! It really is easy and quick to do. The only things you need are a piece of plastic (like from CD cases or the packaging of many electronic devices - phones, videogame accessories, etc.), a compass (EPICS anyone?), and a design that you want to create in the hologram. Follow the steps at the website and then go out into the sun (or use any point source - a laser pointer in a dark room for instance). Enjoy!
If you are wondering why the image appears beneath the surface, it has to do with the fact that your eyes are spaced apart and because the scratches that are made on the plastic surface act like a grating. The grating causes interference in the light, and only the image you have designed is allowed to reflect toward your eyes.
This is pretty neat and it really does not take too long if you don't get too intricate with the design. Thanks for the cool project idea El Jefe.
ReplyDeleteThat's actually really cool. I know very very little about holograms. Are they beneficial for information storage (i.e., do they allow for a higher density representation?)?
ReplyDeleteDan,
ReplyDeleteI wasn't sure about your question, but I found a Wikipedia article on the subject. The answer to your question can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_data_storage#Technical_aspects. It looks like holograms can increase the information capacity of a photosensitive material, compared to plain, 2-D images.
Nice question!