Flipping Arrow Experiment Refraction for kids

greetings phil mccordick here with science question from ellie ellie asked why does my pool skimmer look bent or even broken when it's in my pool and that's very good question it's the same effect that causes this kind of stuff to happen weird is it broken no it's not it's just in the water so what's causing this well it all has to do with refraction and the speed of light because ellie your pool is slowing down the speed of light pretty neat right okay let's do an experiment this is glass and now the glass is being filled with water the cool stuff happens in second hold on all right here we go this glass that is half full or half empty depending on what kind of person you are may not look like much but check this out what why do the arrows reverse when they go in the water well that's refraction refraction is something that happens to light remember when you see something you're not actually seeing the thing you're seeing the light reflected off that thing that travels to your eyes and on the way there refraction can change what that looks like it all has to do with density light goes slower when it travels through something more dense water is more dense than air so light goes slower here's our arrow and here's the light rays coming off it to our eye now when you put glass of water in between the light rays bend the head of the arrow and the tail of the arrow bend in towards the center they cross over each other and open up again but now the light from the head of the arrow is on the other side and same with the tail it doesn't just reverse it it can do all kinds of things see watch if you get it closer the arrow looks like it's getting bigger if you take it further away which is kind of hard to do let me see if can get that right whoa it looks like it's getting smaller that's because the round glass is acting like lens and this is how magnifying glasses and microscopes and telescopes and even the glasses you wear on your eyes work it all has to do with changing the angles of light to make something bigger or smaller or even flipped around in this case it's refraction here's some fun you can have with printed out patterns and the refraction coming from your water if you want to print out these patterns for yourself the links are down below in the comments so back to ellie's question when the pool skimmer is in the pool it looks like it's bent or broken well that's because the light coming from the pool skimmer is bending as it leaves the water the pool skimmer should look like this but remember we don't see things only the light reflecting off those things if the light is bent it changes what we see thank you for that amazing question ellie and until next time stay curious this video is dedicated to mikey and ryan lee and their family who support me on patreon mikey brian thank you so much for supporting me really appreciate it and if you would like to support me on patreon and everything do which is teaching kids cool stuff about science well check the link below it'll be in the comments section and in the meantime you can always like and subscribe and share this video with everyone you know or have ever met in your entire life and until next time i'll see you later