Why magnifying glass can burn

Are we going to make fire using this magical glass!? You can expect these words are from my two girls. Let us enter the world of magnifying glass without any delay and lit some fire!! Your support is highly appreciated]. My younger one drew a smiley face using her sketches on the white paper.

Let your kids draw any shape to have fun on the paper as well. My elder one is interested to hold the magnifying glass. She already applied sunscreen lotion to avoid sun burns. So, apply some sunscreen lotion to your children before you go out for sun.

You can make the dot size bigger by tilting the lens back and forth. Keep in mind that keep the dot size as small as possible in order to create the fire sooner. Slowly you can observe some smoke from the focused area. Then the fire comes slowly after smoke appears. My kids focused on eyes and mouth part of the smiley face they have drawn on the white paper.

They were amazed seeing the fire using magnifying glass. They enjoyed peeping out of the eyes of the smiley face as they made holes by creating fire with the lens glass. They hugged and thank me for showing them such a wonderful act. We even went to our garden to try out with dried leaves. It worked so fool-proof that leaves in our garden started burning.

Trust me, no exaggeration. The dried leaves lying around caught fire. I stopped there but was really feeling awesome by the way it worked. You need a magnifying glass which can be purchased but they are not expensive.

Be very careful on a sunny day to prevent any accidents. Ensure not to leave the glass outside without knowledge. Also, do not allow kids to handle alone. The Science Behind It The unique properties of magnifying glass is the magic trick behind creating a fire using magnifying glass.

Wondered to know what those unique properties are!!? Let us begin. We already learned about what is magnifying glass and how it makes things look bigger. Coming to our experiment, the science behind creating a fire using magnifying glass is found in the form of photons.

Photons are just the particles that carry or holds the clear visible light from the sun to the earth. They transmit light and energy in the form of heat. A magnifying glass sets fire by focusing all the photons through the small dot area created by the convex curved outward lens.

When the sun fall on the magnifying glass, the appropriate focal strength of the photons passes through the lens and creates a small sized dot on the ignitable material. This generates an extremely high heat concentration at the dot area which is good enough to start a fire. This is time taking process and you need to wait until the sun light catches fire. The convex lens can be found in many devices we are aware of. Ex: binoculars, camera, even glass bottle bottoms etc.

Tisha was 3 years old when I tried this experiment. You can teach kids about making a fire in your garden with this experiment. You could turn this into a really fun science fair project — just remember to change only one variable at a time, and measure your results!

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Menu Menu. Please note… Bumble Bee had just turned three when we did this activity. The Science Behind It A magnifying glass lens has a convex shape, which bends the sunlight, so that all the sunlight hitting the lens is concentrated into one focal point.

Next: Which flowers absorb the most vibrant colours? Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. However, the larger the lens, the more easily it will be to start a fire. The steepness of the convex shape also plays a part in achieving the extreme heat needed to achieve combustion. Based in Los Angeles, Jeff Wysaski has been a professional writer since Related Is Cedar Good Firewood? Introduction A magnifying glass isn't always used merely for magnification.

The Process A magnifying glass starts a fire through the use of heat from the sun. Why it Works The science behind lighting a fire with a magnifying glass can be found in the form of photos. Additional Info The key to localizing photons is in the convex shape of the magnifying lens.