EDUCATION / SMART RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS AND PARENTS : Where Homework and the Internet Meet: LAUNCH POINT : Light

What travels 186,000 miles in a second, produces rainbows and can be used to create laser beams for surgery or for sending messages around the world? Light not only allows us to see a spectrum of colors, but also can be used to perform surgery and power solar energy panels. Discover the many uses of light as you learn about what light is and how vision works through the direct links on the Times’ Launch Point Web site: https://www.latimes.com/launchpoint/.

Level 1

Star Light Star Bright: It was Sir Isaac Newton who came up with the word “spectrum” to describe how light passing through a prism separates into colors. View animations that show how rainbows are formed and how the wavelength of light is related to its energy level. Try some brain-teasing experiments that let you discover facts about light.

https://amazing-space.stsci.edu/light/

Make a Splash With Color: How do our eyes work? Why are there different colors? Learn how animals and people may see objects very differently. Find out how fluorescent dyes make objects glow in the dark and how colors can change depending on the light source.

https://www.thetech.org/exhibits_events/online/color/intro/

BBC: Science in Action: Laser beams can be used to measure long distances by determining how much time it takes for light to travel to an object and back. Look over the shoulders of scientists as they send a laser beam to an orbiting satellite, find out what a light year is and learn about night vision.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sia/home.html

Level 2

The CEA Light Tour: Light wavelengths are measured in angstroms, which are very small; one angstrom equals one 10-billionth of a meter. Find out how astronomers measure wavelength as well as the intensity, or amplitude, of light.

https://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/light/light_tour.html

Lasers: Lasers are used to play music in CD players and to scan prices at the supermarket. Find out how a laser differs from regular light and just what the word “laser” means--besides standing for the phrase “Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation.”

https://www.thetech.org/exhibits_events/online/lasers/mainpage.html

Bob Miller’s Light Walk: See what you can discover about light, shadows and reflection by taking a “light walk,” building a pinhole viewer or a pinhole camera, and experimenting with how images are projected on a screen.

https://www.exploratorium.edu/sln/light_walk/index.html

Level 3

The Light: Light helps plants grow through the process of photosynthesis. Explore the role of light in eight fields of study: physics, mathematics, biology, chemistry, psychology, geography, religion and the arts.

https://library.advanced.org/23805/home1.htm

Encarta: Light: Light can behave both as a particle (called a photon) or a wave. Learn about the properties of light, how light is measured and important events in the history of studying light, including Einstein’s theory of relativity.

https://encarta.msn.com/find/concise.asp?z=1&pg;=2&ti;=06C88000

Discovery Online: X-Ray Space Vision: What is the difference between gamma rays, X-rays and infrared vision? Learn how astronomers need a variety of instruments to view different space phenomena.

https://www.discovery.com/indep/newsfeatures/xrayvision/xrayvision.html

EXPLORER’S QUEST

The answer to this Internet quiz can be found in the sites at right.

How many times can light travel around the Earth in one second?

CLUE: See BBC: Science in Action

Find What You Need to Know: Have a project on California history? Need help doing a math problem? Launch Point covers more than 100 topics for getting your schoolwork done. Go to https://www.latimes.com/launchpoint/ for the full list of subjects and direct links to the best Internet sites.

Answer to last week’s Quest: Sound travels fastest through a solid and slowest through a gas.

Launch Point is produced by the UC Irvine department of education, which reviews each site for appropriateness and quality. Even so, parents should supervise their children’s use of the Internet. This column was designed by Anna Manring.