Light and Sound

by Chris Oxlade

Overview

Light and sound both travel in waves, but sound waves travel significantly slower than light. Theories like this are difficult to grasp in words, but there are easy ways to see them in action. With this book's simple experiments, young scientists will test out how light can bend and how even invisible sounds can make things move, helping them understand how even the most complex theories work. Through step-by-step instructions, young readers will learn the right way to set up their experiments and expand on concepts they already know.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781978520486
Publisher:	Enslow Publishing, LLC
Publication date:	12/30/2020
Series:	Simple Science Experiments Series
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	9 - 11 Years

Table of Contents

Notes for helpers 5

What is light? 6

What is sound? 7

Using this book 8

Scientisk Kit 10

Experiment time!

Hand shadows 12

Ray of light 14

Through a lens 16

Rinbow colors 18

Changing colors 20

Picture flicker book 22

Seeing sound 24

Light races sound 26

Musical box 28

Blow some music 30

Glossary and Index 32

Editorial Reviews

This 32-page book was written for elementary school children in order to convey to them some concepts about the nature of light and sound. The book is divided into small paragraphs, each highlighted by a title denoting the topic discussed. On many pages are boxes labeled "Science Essentials" that summarize the science content of those pages.

The volume begins with light—how it originates from a change in energy and also how it can be changed into energy (e.g., solar cells). It discusses rays and shadows; the speed of light; seeing; transmission, absorption, and reflection; animal light, and lenses, mirrors, and fiber optics. The section on optical instruments examines microscopes, telescopes, and digital images, but the latter is too complicated a topic for the book to give much in the way of details. The colors of objects and flames (emission spectra) are considered, and the discussion of primary colors gives a brief description of printing in color and the use of colors by humans and by nature. The section on light concludes by mentioning light as electromagnetic radiation occupying a very small region of the total electromagnetic spectrum; it discusses how various portions of that spectrum are used in astronomy to study objects in our universe.

The next five pages of the book give a brief introduction to sound, the nature of waves, how sound differs from light not only in its nature, but in its speed, and how echoes are used by humans and animals to locate objects. Hearing and its attributes, loudness and pitch, are examined, and the dangers of sound are presented. The discussion of musical sounds is compressed into only two pages and would be very unsatisfying even forsome young readers. The book concludes with a glossary, a list of three books for further study, and an index. (from the Science Topics Series.) Highly Recommended, Grades 3-6. REVIEWER: Dr. Richard F. Schwartz (emeritus, State University of New York)