Dr. Gadget's Science Machine
Making your own kaleidoscope

By Joe Lazslo

Hideki Aoki, a Mililani Mauka fifth-grader, looks through a homemade kaleidoscope. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu advertiser

Have you ever looked into a kaleidoscope? What do you see? It's usually a pattern of the material that is in the front. Sometimes there is only a lens in the front and the things in your surroundings become the pattern. How does the kaleidoscope work? Multiple reflections! The last column explained that using two flat mirrors taped together, and changing the angles between them caused multiple images.

To make a kaleidoscope, you need a tube, three mirrors, transparent tape and a clear glass marble that will fit into the tube. The mirrors can be made from the thin plastic boxes in which leis come and some black construction paper.

If you can't find a cardboard tube and a large glass marble that fits in it, make the tube. Use a rectangle of cardboard from a cereal box or a large index card, about 6 inches long. Put the marble in the middle of the cardboard and roll it up into a tube. Tape the seam. Allow the marble to fall out of the tube (Figure 1).

Using the tube as a pattern, draw two circles on a piece of paper. Use one circle to plan the width of the mirrors. The mirrors do not need to be the same width (Figure 2).

Use the mirror widths drawn on the circle and measure and cut three pieces of plastic from the lei boxes. Cut the length a little shorter than the length of the tube to have space to put the marble into the tube half-way. Tape the pieces of plastic together into a triangle. Test-fit the triangle into the tube. If it slides in easily, remove it from the tube and wrap the outside of the triangle with black construction paper. If not, adjust the triangle mirrors, test fit, then go on. Carefully slip the covered triangle into the tube (Figure 3)

Fit the glass marble into one end of the tube and tape or glue it into place with white glue. Using the other circle you drew as a pattern, make an eyepiece for the other end of the tube. Cut out the circle and then cut a small hole in the center of it (Figure 4).

Tape or glue this over the other end of the tube. Look through the eyepiece and at a colorful picture. Does your kaleidoscope show a pattern? Try making one with shiny aluminum foil behind the triangle mirrors and see if this works better.

Until the next time, a hui hou.