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Written by Anshuman Singh
With the help of ICONS members, the department of outreach at our institute launched a new activity for kids called “Mission Impossible”. The objective was to reach a jewel crossing a laser beam security system, at the best Hollywood style. Afterwards, the kids had the chance to construct another beam path with mirrors and check it functioning!
Laser maze is one of the ICONS activities aimed to educate young students about direct application of light in daily life. It’s a simple game we play with the students, where we ask them to cross the hallway to get an object sitting on other side of the hallway.
Initially, they are unaware about the laser maze put on across the hallway, forming a security system with the help of a camera and a simple code runs on a PC. The students barely see the laser light, and on their attempt to get to the object they activate the alarm by blocking the laser light with their legs.
Here, we introduce them the principle of laser maze and how it’s implemented in the hallway using an inexpensive diode laser, set of mirrors, and a camera. We make them think how easily light can be applied to design a basic security system, taking advantage of its reflection property. This kind of application of light they see in automatic doors at public places in their everyday life. Lights and mirrors may make it feel like magic, but it’s really science and a method that’s needed to direct the laser beam through.
To make task more interesting, we create smoke/fog in the hallway, which makes light visible to their eyes. We ask students about the reason behind this drastic change in visibility of the laser light and introduce them scattering principle, where light scatters more by the particles in the smoke, makes it visible to us.
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