Pringle Camera

Light and Sound is a course about how we see and hear the world and how we measure time. We were assigned to build, sketch, and explain how a pinhole camera works using STEAM principles. The purpose of this action project was to demonstrate our understanding of STEAM principles we studied which were refraction, wavelength, frequency, electromagnetic spectrum, and basic trigonometry. I am proud of my photo-gram picture, it is very modelesque!

Photo-Gram, GN 2015

A pinhole camera is a lightproof box with a tiny hole in one side. The tiny hole acts as the lens. The light rays from the sun enter into the tiny hole. They continue traveling until they hit the photo-sensitive paper. After it is exposed to light, the photo-sensitive paper is put into several chemicals which help develop the image that was created. This is why it is important that our box be completely lightproof.

Pinhole Camera Photo, GN 2015

This process illustrates how light is a particle. Light carries energy. The photo-sensitive paper reacts upon receiving photons (the quantum of light) especially visible light (electromagnetic spectrum). When photons heat the photo-sensitive paper, electrons get emitted from the surface. Only a particle can affect the quantum level of things. It also behaves like a wave because when two light rays come in contact, they don't bounce off of each other which would imply that light behaves as a particle. This doesn't illustrate refraction because refraction is the bending of light rays when they enter a transparent medium that slows its speed, whereas light travels straight through a pinhole.
.

Pinhole Camera, GN 2015

It's about 7 inches across from the lens to my photo paper. My toy person is about 11 inches tall. It's about 5.75 inches down from my pinhole to the bottom of my camera, so if I created similar triangles, the equation would be: 5.75 / 7 = 11 / X, where X is the distance between the back of my camera and the front of my toy. Since X = 13.391 (11 x 7 / 5.75) the minimum distance between my camera and my toy should be 13.391 - 7 = 6.391 inches.

Sketch, GN 2015

Using the Pythagorean theorem, I can calculate the hypotenuses of these triangles: 5.75^2 + 7^2 = (1)C^2, so (1)C = 9.05, and 13.39^2 + 11^2 = (2)C^2, (2)C = 17.328. 17.328 - 9.06 = 8.268. I can also use tan ^-1 of (5.75/7) to find the angle of the light hitting the back corner of my camera, which is 39.40 degrees. Since these are right triangles, the other angle is 180 degrees - 90 degrees - 39.40 degrees = 50.6 degrees.

My shutter speed (how long my lens was open) was 4 minutes. This didn't help much because my pinhole was so small, which didn't allow many light rays to enter. If I could do this over again, I would make a bigger pinhole to allow more light to go through.