2003 HS Photo Contest Pictures

2003 High School Photo Contest Winners
Sponsored by Vernier Software and Technology
127th AAPT National Meeting , Madison, WI

First Place - Natural Category

Title: Palms Up or Palms Down?
Student: Lauren Eichmann
School: St. Charles North High School, St. Charles, IL
Teacher: Diana Hall

In this picture, one may have a tough time discerning perception from reality. Are the palm trees actually growing that way? The question to that answer involves the science of --- you guessed it --- physics!

With this image the water acts as a plane mirror, or a mirror that reflects the virtual images of objects equidistant from the "mirror" as the actual objects. Because the light is reflected in one direction only due to the smoothness of the water's surface, the reflected images are of the same size and shape of the objects. This image, overall, demonstrates the basic law of reflection, which states that the angles of incoming and reflected rays are equal. One is able to see the reflections of the palm trees because incoming sunlight bounces off the water at an angle of incidence, and then reflects back at an angle of reflection to the viewer's eyes.