While designing an optics lab for a conceptual physics course, I came across a “box theater” activity.1 The box theater is a pinhole camera obscura made from a box that students put over their heads and shoulders. I use the activity as a capstone experience to explain optical systems. (Classroom demonstrations of the camera obscura have been described by others.2) First, the students build and experiment with a camera obscura made from a plastic cup and a convex lens with a focal length of 7.5 cm, and then “wear” the box theater. The difficulty with the box theater is the dimness of the image. A cloth drape has to be hung from the bottom of the box around the shoulders of the students to prevent light leakage, and the students have to wait a few minutes for their eyes to adjust to the darkness.
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September 2011
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September 01 2011
An Improved Box Theater
Michael E. Huster
Michael E. Huster
Nyack College
, Manhattan and Nyack, NY
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Phys. Teach. 49, 356 (2011)
Citation
Michael E. Huster; An Improved Box Theater. Phys. Teach. 1 September 2011; 49 (6): 356. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.3628262
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