Water Tank Lab

The first lab we did was overall fascinating. Each station had something different to offer and revealed results that I would not have guessed. The exercise that profoundly stuck out to me the most was the “water tank,” lab. The procedure of the lab was to shoot a red laser beam into the tank of water from three different directions. I first shot the laser from above the water surface, then from below, and finally from the side of the tank. Interestingly enough, each direction, the laser would bend in the water. The fascinating part of this lab was the idea as to why the laser could not exit the water tank, and instead would bend equally in each direction. Our group spent the majority of the lab time focused on this water tank and the possible reasons as to why the red laser would bend. The
Another part of the lab that intrigued me, was the water tank that had a few drops of cream added to it. Professor Mayer, explained that this effect is used in most criminal movies when the characters shine their flashlight into water and beams reflect from the water. The milky appearance of the cream in the water made it easy for laser to appear in the water because there was something for the light to reflect off of. Once our group understood this idea that refracted light bends the laser and reflected light bounces the beam, we bent down to the bottom of the water tank and shot the laser so that the beam came from the water into the air rather than the air into the water. We aimed the laser upwards causing the laser to reflect and bounce down once it reached the surface. This experiment made our group start thinking about refraction and reflection in regards to real world water applications. For example, it now makes sense as to why when you sit at the edge of a pool and look at your legs they appear to bent rather than