2005 HS Photo Contest Pictures

2005 High School Photo Contest Winners
Sponsored by Vernier Software and Technology
2005 AAPT Summer Meeting , Salt Lake City, UT

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First Place - Natural Category

Title: Ripples in the Sky
Student: Patricia Levi
School: Head Royce School, Oakland, CA
Teacher: Chris Harper

This picture was taken at May Lake in Yosemite with the camera upside down. The still lake acts like a plane mirror which produces a virtual image. This picture demonstrates the law of reflection: the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. Since the lake is flat, all the light from the mountain is reflected in one direction, not in the multiple paths that would result from a disturbance. Consequently the image of the mountain is not distorted and appears to be very real. A pebble thrown into the water forms waves that travel outward forming a circle.