Rainbows: The Science of Light by Steve Parker (:

I found more information in The Science of Light by Steve Parker. Some of the information was repetitive. The information I found was that:

• The main source of light for our world is the sun.


• Light is a type of energy that we see with our eyes. It is made of electomagnetic radiation.


• If we are in the shadow of a large object we are "in the shade."


• When light waves hit an object, what happens depends on the surface of the object. If the surface is very smooth, shiny, and flat like a mirror, the waves will bounce off. This bouncing back is called reflection. Because of the reflected light, we see an image of the object in the mirror.


• Light changes direction when it hits a new substance.


• When light hits a curved mirror, its rays change direction. It makes the image even bigger and more circluar because the mirror, glass or prism is curved.


• Ordinary white light from a flashlight or the sun is a mixture of all the colors of light.


• When the light of the sun hits raindrops, the light is bent and split into seven different colors. The light is bent again as it exits the raindrop. This is how a rainbow is formed.


• For most people, sight is the most important of our five senses. Light passes through the clear, outer covering of the eye, the cornea. It is then focused by the lens of the eye to form a clear, sharp image on the back of the eyeball, the retina. The retina detects different light colors and sends nerve messages to the brain.


• The way the light rays cross over means that the image is upside down in your eye. However, when we are babies, the brain learns to turn the image the right-side up.


• In 300 B.C.E., Ancient Greeks discussed the nature of light and how it reflects and refracts.
• In 1020, Alhazen said that eyes see by taking in light.
• In 1690, Christiaan Huyguens argued that light is in the form of waves.
• In 1865, James Clerk Maxwell shows that light is a form of combined electricity and magnetism, called electromagnetic energy.

I have found a lot of information from the two new books I got. Most of it was new. I think that I have a lot of information right now and I am going to start thinking about ways to finalize my project in a creative way. This inquiry project was so much fun so far and I know there is more to come. The project and information was interesting. I really liked how we got to pick any subject we wanted. At first, I was a little over-whelmed and didn't really know what topic to do but then rainbows appeared in my mind and I knew I went the right way with what topic I was going to do. (: