Observing a Shower using Light

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What type of experiment is this?

Experimental procedure and explanation:

• Build a simple shower to observe water flow using the “Water as Optical Fiber” experiment.
• First, create a showerhead by drilling holes in the bottom of an empty potato chip container.
• Lightly color the water with paint or a similar substance—colorless water makes it difficult to see how light travels through the flow.
• Fill the container with water and observe the flow. Shine a flashlight into the container, and you’ll see the light traveling along the water stream.
• Next, with adult supervision, make a shower head using a 500 mL aluminum can (to avoid injury while handling).
• Use a can opener to remove the top lid of the aluminum can. The cut edges can be sharp, so carefully bend them inward with pliers or similar tools. For extra safety, cover the edges with vinyl tape or something similar.
• Drill several small holes (about 2 mm in diameter) in the bottom of the can. In this experiment, a pin vise was used. If you don’t have one, you can carefully make holes using a nail and hammer—but only with adult supervision, as this can be dangerous.
• Although the video quality may be low, the experiment looks much clearer when observed in person.
• This video was produced with the support of the JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (18K03956).

[Keywords]	Total internal reflection
[Related items]	Water as Optical Fiber

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