Kaleidoscope

light and mirrors · optical illusion · geometry · patterns

Mirrors at angles. A kaleidoscope has two or more mirrors tilted toward each other inside a tube. When you look through one end, the mirrors bounce light back and forth, creating mirror images that form a perfectly symmetrical pattern.

Colorful glass pieces. At one end of the kaleidoscope is a cell filled with loose pieces of colored glass or other transparent materials. The mirrors reflect these colored pieces over and over, so you see many copies arranged in a beautiful, balanced design.

Constantly changing. When you twist or rotate the cell, all the colored pieces tumble and shift. This makes the symmetrical pattern change and transform into new designs, so you never see exactly the same pattern twice.

Light magic. The kaleidoscope works because mirrors reflect light. The angled mirrors bounce light beams between them many times, which is why you see so many repeated copies of the colored glass arranged in neat, mirror-image patterns.

Optical instrument. Kaleidoscopes use the science of reflection and geometry to trick your eye into seeing complex, symmetrical patterns that would be impossible to arrange by hand.