Light is probably our most important means of interacting with the world around us. Understanding of both Light and Sight can provide a unique insight to our understanding of the world around us.
In this lecture we shall ‘ take a look at light’. With demonstrations we shall show that light travels in straight lines, but that prisms, mirrors and lenses can change its direction. These ideas are then combined to build a simple pinhole camera which is subsequently improved to produce a simple ‘eye’. The nature of colour is also investigated and how humans detect colour is elucidated using Tyndals classic three colour patches. Finally the lecture will look at human vision itself and then use a series of classic optical illusions to show that in many ways it is the brain that creates images that guide our understanding.