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David Snider uses a pinhole camera to teach his students about both the properties of light and the ways people have manipulated it for centuries.

Credit: University of South Florida

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Video Transcript:

For the pinhole camera, we took a great big box and taped it all up, painted it black inside to get rid of all transient light. We put a hole in the corner of it so that you could stick your head in and it wouldn't be emitting much other light; and then at one end of the box we punched a tiny pinhole, painted a white screen on the other side of the box, and if you look in there you actually have a pinhole camera. You can see, looking at the screen part, you can see what's behind the box coming through that pinhole. It's a very startling effect. It's like you're looking at television for the first time; and as you move your head it's like you're moving a television camera moving around. You'll see the students are somewhat amused when the box gets taken off of their head, and it's a nice experiment. Of course the image comes in upside down which students might not think about also.

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