Investigating Light

Science is an important topic in our urban world as we are surrounded by technology based on the ways that physics, chemistry, biology and all other sciences work. Textbooks are necessary, of course, as are other books that cover the same topics in different ways. The “Investigating Science Challenges” series of books wisely limits itself to the area of physics, what most people think of as science, presenting the material with the key information in small pieces and lots of pictures. Each book has three “Let’s Investigate” sections, an experiment related to the topic using easily available materials and demonstrating a concept given in the text.

Richard Spilsbury has taken on a series of concepts that most people struggle with and has presented them clearly and briefly. He has successfully included both interesting real world facts and definitions on many of the pages and also includes related and exciting photographs. It is great to see a wide variety of young people showing how to do the experiments and illustrating the points of the text. Some of the people appear in more than one book giving more sense of continuity.

It is encouraging that, in addition to the glossary, references and index, there are tips for doing the experiments included at the back of the book. Once readers have used one of the books, they will know what to expect in the others.

Light is capable of creating so many interesting effects that this book has many from which to choose, and Richard Spilsbury has selected several beautiful pictures to illustrate the concepts. The experiments have been chosen to require no fancy equipment while still showing the desired results.

As light is a form of energy, there is overlap between the contents of Investigating Light and many of the other books in the “Investigating Science Challenges” series. Here, the book starts with sources of light and how light relates to heat and then how readers see with light and reflections. The investigation is about reflection. This is continued with how light reacts to different materials and shadows, also the topic of an experiment. Next comes refraction, bending of light, and the spectrum with a good, simple study of creating a rainbow, also the image on the cover. Fibre optics is included in the section on further possibilities.

Light is so ever present that it can be a challenge to even think about it as a topic. This is actually true of many of the subjects covered in a science class. Investigating Light” provides a door into the study of light that can entice a reader into further investigation.

The “Investigating Science Challenges” seems to be designed to fill specific curriculum requirements in both science and in research methods. If this is the case, the series is a success as it contains numerous ways to draw students into the topics and experiments that are easy enough for young people to perform while getting a more practical understanding of how science works. A budding scientist or engineer will be particularly attracted to these ideas and to the method of presentation.