Further explorations with colored shadows

Once you've built your own colored shadows, you can take your explorations even further at home or in your classroom. Here are some ideas to get started.

1. Use a wide strip of paper instead of a pencil to get many more colors. How are these produced? Think back to the other videos for a hint.

2. Find out what happens when you use different colored paper for the screen. Try yellow, green, blue, red, purple, and so on.

3. If you let light from the three bulbs shine through a hole in a card that is held an appropriate distance from the screen, you will see three separate patches of colored light on the screen, one from each lamp. (Make the hole large enough to get a patch of color you can really see.) If you move the card closer to the screen, the patches of light will eventually overlap and you will see the mixtures of each pair of colors.

4. Have fun experimenting with shapes and movement when making colored shadows. See how many combinations you can make, how the colors change when you’re closer or farther from your light source. Or experiment with different colored bulbs and see how it affects your shadow palette.