Colour Mixing
This video from the Royal Institution describes how colour mixing works. Colours of light cannot be mixed in physics but different cones in your eyes are sensitive to different colours. The brain interprets a mixture between the two as a colour somewhere between the two. In the case of magenta, your brain invents this colour…
Cloud Chamber
This video from the Royal Institution shows tracks within a cloud chamber. A supersaturated layer of alcohol vapour exists just above the floor of the chamber and the ionisation radiation causes vapour to condense along the path of the radiation. An Americium source is introduced into the chamber so that tracks from alpha radiation…
Tales from the Prep Room: the Ames Room
Produced by the Royal Institution, this short video clip shows how perception can be confused in an Ames room. The video shows the production of the room, which has a checked floor, windows and ceiling that appear to be normal but is in fact distorted. The overall effect is that moving to different parts of the room give a distorted…
Listening to a Locust Brain
Produced by the Royal Institution, this short video illustrates how the nervous signals generated when a locust detects movement, can be shown. The clip shows a locust which is immobilised to enable the nerve signals passing down its visual neuron to be detected. These signals are amplified and converted into sound. This produces…