A Wonderleaf question
How does a magnifying glass make things bigger?
a real page from the book
A magnifying glass makes things look bigger by bending the light that reaches your eye. Its curved lens changes the direction of those rays, and your brain reads them as if they came from a larger object nearby, even though the real object has stayed the same size.
The best detail is that the glass is borrowing a habit your brain uses every day. Your brain usually treats light as though it moved neatly along straight paths, so a bent path can make a crumb, leaf vein, or ant foot look wonderfully close.
Wonder words
- lens
- refraction
- rays
- focus
Try it out
Use a clear water glass as a simple lens and compare how printed letters look through the side and from above.
Read the whole picture book
Watercolour scenes, straight answers, about three minutes cover to cover.
Open the picture bookKeep wondering
- How do lenses in glasses and telescopes bend light to help us see?
- How do mirrors work?
- What makes a rainbow?
And the next question?
Ask anything — Wonderleaf writes and illustrates a picture book for it. That's the whole idea.
Ask your own question